 During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he received a series of death threats, and—according to Bruns—he often faced "spiteful mobs and scurrilous race-bating".Within Chavez's movement itself, there was concern and criticism of his methods.It the early 1970s, for instance, Chavez-supporter George Higgins wrote a private memo arguing that Chavez "appealed very crassly" to feelings of guilt among many "Protestant social actionists" and threatened them "with the enmity of the poor" if they failed to meet with Chavez's demands.