Documentary Review: 'Song for Cesar' Documents the Music of a Movement

From pain, anguish, and strife often comes the greatest works of art. This has been true throughout civilization but in certain areas, it was crystalized. Flashpoints of great pain and suffering are marked in human history by great works of art and a strong example of that comes in the art that was born from the fields of toil in California in the 1940s to the 1960s and 1970s, much of it inspired by a man named Cesar Chavez.

The new documentary, Song of Cesar, reflects upon the art that was created while Cesar Chavez led migrant workers from a time where they were criminally exploited to a time when they were finally paid a minimum wage for their work and were given the kinds of protections that should have existed out of simple, human decency and somehow did not.

Featuring interviews with a diverse and vast array of artists including musicians, painters, and actors, Song for Cesar is a portal back in time in the way only great art can take you back in time. The documentary chronicles the songs inspired by a movement driven by a desire to just be treated fairly and humanely. That relatively modest longing was poignantly captured by some of the finest artists of our day, especially those of Latin heritage.

Leading the way are a pair of artists who traveled with Cesar Chavez and helped document Chavez's labor reform efforts through song, singer-songwriter Abel Sanchez and legendary guitarist Jorge Santana. We join Sanchez and Santana in the studio as they recreate some of the most iconic and inspiring anthems of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, the time when Cesar Chavez himself went from overworked farmhand to a leader demanding migrant workers, farm workers, and the like, be treated better, paid properly, and receive the kind of labor law protections that rest of the country received.

While Chavez and his people were met with violent and deadly resistance by members of law enforcement and government, he was aided by people like Abel Sanchez, Jorge Santana, Carlos Santana, Joan Baez and many others in documenting the saga through some of the most inspired and inspiring American music in history. Modern artists should take note of these legendary songs for a tip as to how to use art protest mistreatment. These bracing, undaunted, and rousing anthems mourned and motivated people to get involved and demand their basic human rights and decency.

One of the fascinating elements of the life of Cesar Chavez is how immediate and recent his work and his successes are in American history. For me, for many years growing up, Cesar Chavez was always seen in black & white footage, in colorful paintings that were of their time in style and beauty, and in old photos from long ago regional newspapers. Thus when I got older and became more aware of the American labor movement, I was surprised to find that Cesar Chavez, unlike so many of his revolutionary brethren, lived a long life. Cesar Chavez died in 1992. His work and the results of that work were still beginning as I was coming into the world. Cesar Chavez is not a figure of some terribly distant past, he was still alive when Bill Clinton was elected President.

If you were like me, a member of Generation X, prior to the internet and the endless reams of historic data available, you could be forgiven for thinking that Cesar Chavez was somehow a figure of a far more distant past. American history may have been changed forever by Cesar Chavez but his accomplishments were often minimized by the American education system that did a disservice to students everywhere by almost completely ignoring the ways he changed the world. His legacy was carried on not as a an important historical figure in textbooks, though he was that, but rather through the kind of art created by and now profiled in Song for Cesar.

Song for Cesar is a powerhouse documentary featuring music and works of art that make your heart and spirit soar. These cathartic anthems cheered on striking workers, soothed their souls, and mourned their losses. The incalculable value of this art is apparent in every moment of this remarkable documentary. As we hear songs that haven't had mainstream exposure in decades, if ever outside the communities that created them, you can't help but be transported emotionally and spiritually back to that time, those moments, and the immediacy and gravity of why they were created.

As Roger Ebert so eloquently put it, The Movies are a machine that creates empathy. The same could be said of the music inspired by the movement fostered by Cesar Chavez. While it was his organizing and the fortitude of the spirit of those who stood with him that made change possible, the art inspired by the movement generated empathy and care among people who may have felt that what was happening in the fields of California did not effect them.

Song for Cesar is a reminder of a time when art truly mattered. The documentary chronicles works of art that existed well beyond mere entertainment, but acted as a window to a world some would prefer you could not see. While so much of today's art is disposable, the artists inspired by Cesar Chavez remain indispensable today as an example of the ways art comforts the world, speaks on the behalf of the souls of the speechless, and can help in informing needed change.

Song for Cesar will have a limited theatrical release on March 11th, 2022. You can find out how to see Song for Cesar by going to SongforCesar.com. I'm urging you to Seek this movie out for a better understanding of how vital art can be.