As soon as I opened up the book to read the article, I was both intrigued and puzzled by the title: "Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers, and the History of Star Wars." As self-explanatory as it seems, I started off by searching "Cesar Chavez" and the "United Farm Workers" on the Internet. Here's what I got. Cesar Chavez, according to Wikipedia, was an American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers, a labor union that later became a union of farmworkers. My next question was: so what does Star Wars have to do with a labor union?
Before I delve into Star Wars, it would be foolish not to mention Silicon Valley where virtually everything started. Silicon Valley is the inception of United States’ technology and the center of digital cultures that we cannot live without today. Curtiz Marez goes on to mention that companies based in the valley tend to emphasize their corporate history. For instance, Intel, the world’s largest maker of some of the most innovative technologies, operates a museum “for the purpose of increasing employee, customer and public awareness of Intel innovations, technologies and branding in an interactive and educational manner.” In other words, it all comes down to marketing and branding of the firms in the most attractive and pretty ways.
The image of the “bunny” most accurately depicts what is really going on with Intel, or many other similar firms in the Silicon Valley. The Intel Museum invites people to take pleasure in performing an Intel brand based on images of happy workers in bunny suits jumping up and down with stretched up arms and splayed fingers. The image of the happy bunny acts to disguise the work-related illnesses and injuries of low-wage Asian and Latin American migrant workers in Silicon Valley. Consumers are constantly fed with positive images from corporate giants and almost always truly believe in what they see.
This is where Star Wars comes in: in a 1977 advertisement of Intel, a computer engineer wearing a Darth Vader mask was portrayed. Some suggest that the Darth Vader is a representation of a clear corporate, social or even racial hierarchy within many technology companies. Later on, Star Wars became a metaphor that defined the American Dream. Phrased in a very sarcastic way, the belief that a “better life lay beyond the junior high school” was far spread among the society.
Tying the knots back together, the relationship between Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers and Star Wars is pretty straightforward: what you see is not everything. While corporate giants like Intel deceive the public with bunnies or what not, minorities are constantly suffering on the backstage to stand up to that corporate image. Silicon Valley produces products and services of which we are consumers, dependent upon labor by those who may not have the means to access these goods and services. While we blindly applaud or admire the many benefits of seemingly well-off employees involved in R&D, we forget to question the equitability of laborers at the Silicon Valley.
Before I delve into Star Wars, it would be foolish not to mention Silicon Valley where virtually everything started. Silicon Valley is the inception of United States’ technology and the center of digital cultures that we cannot live without today. Curtiz Marez goes on to mention that companies based in the valley tend to emphasize their corporate history. For instance, Intel, the world’s largest maker of some of the most innovative technologies, operates a museum “for the purpose of increasing employee, customer and public awareness of Intel innovations, technologies and branding in an interactive and educational manner.” In other words, it all comes down to marketing and branding of the firms in the most attractive and pretty ways.
The image of the “bunny” most accurately depicts what is really going on with Intel, or many other similar firms in the Silicon Valley. The Intel Museum invites people to take pleasure in performing an Intel brand based on images of happy workers in bunny suits jumping up and down with stretched up arms and splayed fingers. The image of the happy bunny acts to disguise the work-related illnesses and injuries of low-wage Asian and Latin American migrant workers in Silicon Valley. Consumers are constantly fed with positive images from corporate giants and almost always truly believe in what they see.
This is where Star Wars comes in: in a 1977 advertisement of Intel, a computer engineer wearing a Darth Vader mask was portrayed. Some suggest that the Darth Vader is a representation of a clear corporate, social or even racial hierarchy within many technology companies. Later on, Star Wars became a metaphor that defined the American Dream. Phrased in a very sarcastic way, the belief that a “better life lay beyond the junior high school” was far spread among the society.
Tying the knots back together, the relationship between Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers and Star Wars is pretty straightforward: what you see is not everything. While corporate giants like Intel deceive the public with bunnies or what not, minorities are constantly suffering on the backstage to stand up to that corporate image. Silicon Valley produces products and services of which we are consumers, dependent upon labor by those who may not have the means to access these goods and services. While we blindly applaud or admire the many benefits of seemingly well-off employees involved in R&D, we forget to question the equitability of laborers at the Silicon Valley.