September 15th kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month! To celebrate this month, we’re revisiting a blog from two years ago that highlights some pictures and other magazine clips from El Malcriado, a Chicano labor newspaper from 1964-1976, established by Cesar Chavez. Chavez was a core leader in the United Farm Worker’s Movement of the 60s and 70s that advocated for farmworker rights and fair wages. This week was also a great time for me to reflect on such an exciting moment last spring when I was able to go hear Dolores Huerta (pictured below during the movement) speak at California State University, Channel Islands. If you want a way to get students thinking about Huerta’s impact on the broader Chicano Movement, here is a free document analysis resource!
In preparing for one of our CRPs on the Delano Grape Strike, we relied heavily on El Malcriado as it is full of rich documentation of the farmworker’s movement. Here is a brief summary of the strike, excerpted from our CRP:
In 1965, after a successful strike in Coachella Valley, Larry Itliong led the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to Delano to fight for farm worker rights during the grape harvest. Having gained a $1.40/hour wage for farm workers in Coachella, he prepared workers to go on strike in Delano when growers refused to pay more than $1.20/hour. However, while the Filipino workers under Itliong readily joined the strike, Mexican workers were willing to accept $1.20/hour and work in the strikers’ place.
Recognizing that unless they banded together, no one would win, Itliong approached and convinced Cesar Chavez and his union, the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), to join the strike. AWOC strikers began on September 8, 1965 and the NFWA joined the strike on September 16. For the next five years, the strike persisted into a global movement of labor strikes and consumer boycotts to fight for fair wages for farmworkers.
In March 1966, Cesar Chavez led a 300 mile march from Delano to Sacramento to pressure the state to answer farm worker demands. Then, after almost a year of striking together, the two unions merged together as the United Farm Workers (UFW) in August 1966. Chavez, Itliong, and Dolores Huerta were its top leaders.
Below are some clips from the Magazine:
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!