Cesar Chavez Quotes in Cesar Chavez (2014)

Cesar Chavez: [on air, to BBC1 Radio host] Once social change begins, it can't be reversed. You can't uneducate someone who's learned how to read. You can't humiliate someone who has pride. And you can't oppress someone who is not afraid anymore.

Cesar Chavez: With all due respect, I know you went to a fancy school, but that doesn't make you an expert.

Cesar Chavez: Who started it?

Fernando Chavez: I told you, they started calling us names.

Cesar Chavez: No, who started the fight?

Fernando Chavez: We didn't have a choice.

Cesar Chavez: You always have a choice.

Sherriff Smith: You mind telling me what's so funny?

Cesar Chavez: Sir, we're Catholic. How can Catholics be communists?

Jerry Cohen: Who else is on the team?

Cesar Chavez: Just you.

Jerry Cohen: Doesn't it take more than one person to make a team?

Cesar Chavez: Oh, you'll be doing more work than one person.

Sherriff Smith: Cesar, you got a permit for this march?

Cesar Chavez: It's not a march, Sheriff. It's a pilgrimage all the way to Sacramento. And our families are here just to say goodbye.

Sherriff Smith: [to policemen] You hear that? They don't like working for a day's wage, but they will walk over 300 miles for free.

Cesar Chavez: I'm angry that I live in a world where a man who picks your food can't feed his family.

Cesar Chavez: You know, when the Chinese came to America to build the railroads, you know what they demanded of their overseers?

Fernando Chavez: [nonchalantly] No.

Cesar Chavez: Food. Good food. And enough time to enjoy it. And if the owners skimped on that, they wouldn't lift a finger. Give the Chinese a good meal every day, and they could build the infrastructure of a continent. Their meal is what gave their lives their dignity. And to them, dignity was more important than money.

Cesar Chavez: [on air, to BBC1 Radio host] They'd rather sell the grapes to London or Stockholm, and think that that will erase all the indignities that people suffered.

Cesar Chavez: [on air, to BBC1 Radio host] Well, it's never been about the grapes. It's always been about the people. The poorest of the poor, the marginalized, the ones who have been ignored. There would be no food on the table without these people. These people have names, faces, families. And I guess what we want to accomplish is to give these people a voice.

Bogdanovich Senior: You have to admit, this old Croat put up a hell of a fight.

Cesar Chavez: Yeah, I can do that, as long as you can admit this little Mexican kicked your ass.

Cesar Chavez: [closing lines, archival footage] But I want more than anything else, I'd like to see the poor take a very direct part in shaping society. And let them make the decisions. And in our case, if the poor aren't involved, change will never come.