Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los AngelesMain MenuResearch of the DecadesResearch1960s Illustration DevelopmentIllustration DevelopmentPlaylists of the DecadesPlaylistssparcinla.org185fc5b2219f38c7b63f42d87efaf997127ba4fcGreat Wall Institute - Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
1media/005_La-Ofrenda-1024x669-820x536.jpg2021-12-02T22:00:00+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491968 The United Farm Workers /Hunger Strike51968plain2022-01-07T02:41:39+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/cesar_FL_SMALL_thumb.jpg2021-12-02T22:03:06+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49Cesar Chavez4Delano Grape Strike begins September 8, 1965 marks the beginning of one of the most important strikes in American history. As over 2,000 Filipino-American farm workers refused to go to work picking grapes in the valley north of Bakersfield, California, they set into motion a chain of events that would extend over the next five years. We know it as the Delano Grape Strike. READ MORE: When Millions of Americans Stopped Eating Grapes in Support of Farm Workers Filipino and Mexican immigrants had worked for decades along the West Coast, moving with the seasons to harvest the region's crops. The Filipino contingent in particular was growing restless, as many of the workers were aging and anxious for decent medical care and retirement funds. When one of their number, labor organizer Larry Itliong, declared a strike on September 8, he asked for the support of the National Farm Workers Association and its Mexican-American founders, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Although Chavez had reservations about his union's capacity to pull off the strike, he put the issue to the workers, who enthusiastically joined. The strike lasted five years and went through a number of phases. From the outset, the already poor farm workers faced opposition from law enforcement and cruel attempts at sabotage by the growers—some reported that farmers shut off the water supply to their meager dormitories. As frustration grew and workers increasingly spoke of violence three years into the strike, Chavez decided to go on a hunger strike, emulating his hero Mahatma Gandhi. In addition to ending the calls for violence, the hunger strike drew further attention to the movement, earning praise from figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.media/cesar_FL_SMALL.jpgplain2021-12-02T22:14:00+00:00196820080725071600cesar_LL, 7/25/08, 7:16 AM, 8C, 9000x12000 (0+0), 150%, Repro 2.2 v2, 1/30 s, R91.8, G67.5, B83.9Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Chavez map to delano_thumb.webp2021-12-23T05:26:34+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491966 March from Delano to the state capital4Striking workers are subjected to physical and verbal attacks throughout their peaceful demonstrations, and on March 16, the Senate Sub-Committee on Migratory Labor held hearings in Delano. March 17, the morning following the hearings, Cesar Chavez sets out with 100 farm workers to begin his pilgrimage to the San Joaquin Valley. After 25 days, their numbers swell from hundreds, to an army of thousands.media/Chavez map to delano.webpplain2021-12-23T05:54:11+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Breaking Bread CC and RFK_thumb.JPG2022-01-07T03:03:00+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491966 Breaking Bread3Ending his 23-day fast in support of the Union’s strike against grape growers, United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez (R) breaks bread with Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in this 1966 photo. Chavez said that Kennedy legitimized his union’s cause by lending his support. On 19th February, 1968, Cesar Chavez, the trade union leader, began a hunger strike in protest against the violence being used against his members in California. Robert F. Kennedy went to the San Joaquin Valley to give Chavez his support and told waiting reporters: “I am here out of respect for one of the heroic figures of our time – Cesar Chavez. I congratulate all of you who are locked with Cesar in the struggle for justice for the farm worker and in the struggle for justice for Spanish-speaking Americans.” On March 10 Robert F. Kennedy flew to California to help Chavez end a 25-day fast, offered as public penance for the violence that had resulted from his union's strike tactics. Chavez, who had lost 35 pounds in 25 days, was too weak to speak at the Mass of Thanksgiving in his honor. But someone read his speech, which included the following words: "It is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are... I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totallymedia/Breaking Bread CC and RFK.JPGplain2022-01-07T03:07:53+00:001966Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Memphis Santiation Workers Strike_thumb.png2022-07-09T00:27:35+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike2National Guard troops lined Beale Street during a protest on March 29 , 1968. “I was in every march, all of ’em, with that sign: I AM A MAN,” recalls former sanitation worker Ozell Ueal. Bettmman Collection / Getty Imagesmedia/Memphis Santiation Workers Strike.pngplain2022-07-09T00:28:47+00:001968Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-01-06 at 2.15.23 PM_thumb.png2022-01-06T22:16:25+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49Dolores Huerta1United Farm Workersmedia/Screen Shot 2022-01-06 at 2.15.23 PM.pngplain2022-01-06T22:16:25+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Cesar and RFK_thumb.png2022-01-07T02:57:13+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49RFK and Cesar Chavez1Ending his 23-day fast in support of the Union’s strike against grape growers, United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez (R) breaks bread with Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in this 1966 photo. Chavez said that Kennedy legitimized his union’s cause by lending his support. On 19th February, 1968, Cesar Chavez, the trade union leader, began a hunger strike in protest against the violence being used against his members in California. Robert F. Kennedy went to the San Joaquin Valley to give Chavez his support and told waiting reporters: “I am here out of respect for one of the heroic figures of our time – Cesar Chavez. I congratulate all of you who are locked with Cesar in the struggle for justice for the farm worker and in the struggle for justice for Spanish-speaking Americans.” On March 10 Robert F. Kennedy flew to California to help Chavez end a 25-day fast, offered as public penance for the violence that had resulted from his union's strike tactics. Chavez, who had lost 35 pounds in 25 days, was too weak to speak at the Mass of Thanksgiving in his honor. But someone read his speech, which included the following words: "It is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are... I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us be men." Note: sources have conflicting start and ending dates of this either 25 or 27 day fast on water only. (UPI Photo/Files)media/Cesar and RFK.pngplain2022-01-07T02:57:13+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Screen Shot 2022-07-21 at 12.19.45 PM_thumb.png2022-07-21T19:20:19+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491962 United Farm Workers1For more than a century farmworkers had been denied a decent life in the fields and communities of California’s agricultural valleys. Essential to the state’s biggest industry, but only so long as they remained exploited and submissive farmworkers had tried but failed so many times to organize the giant agribusiness farms that most observers considered it a hopeless task. And yet by the early 1960’s things were beginning to change beneath the surface. Within another fifteen years more than 50,000 farmworkers were protected by union contracts. The Bracero program, an informal arrangement between the United States and Mexican governments, became Public Law 78 in 1951. Started during World War II as a program to provide Mexican agricultural workers to growers, it continued after the war. Public Law 78 stated that no bracero-a temporary worker imported from Mexico-could replace a domestic worker. In reality this provision was rarely enforced. In fact the growers had wanted the Bracero program to continue after the war precisely in order to replace domestic workers. The small but energetic National Farm Labor Union, led by dynamic organizer Ernesto Galarza, found its efforts to create a lasting California farmworkers union in the 1940’s and 50’s stymied again and again by the growers’ manipulation of braceros. Over time, however, farmworkers, led by Cesar Chavez, were able to call upon allies in other unions, in churches and in community groups affiliated with the growing civil rights movement, to put enough pressure on politicians to end the Bracero Program by 1964media/Screen Shot 2022-07-21 at 12.19.45 PM.pngplain2022-07-21T19:20:19+00:001962Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49
1media/Escuelita in Granger, Cesar Chavez_thumb.jpeg2022-08-01T23:12:06+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a491966 Organizational efforts to unionize farm workers in Central Washington1Thirty-five years ago in April, Yakima Valley farmworkers took to the streets to address low wages and other concerns. The workers, who marched from Granger to Yakima over the course of two days, were led by Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers union. One organizer of the march said its legacy was instilling confidence in area farmworkers and giving them a voice that has been heard in Olympia. “They became emboldened,” recalled Ricardo Garcia, one of the organizers of the 1986 march and one of the founders of Radio KDNA, a Granger-based Spanish-language radio station. The farmworkers movement traces its roots to the Mexican Farm Worker Program — also known as the Bracero program — that brought Mexican nationals to the United States to keep farms working as the military and war industries created a labor shortage. While the program required that farmworkers be treated fairly, they were subjected to brutal working conditions — workers were required to use short-handled hoes — and cheated out of a portion of their wages by the Mexican government, which was supposed to hold a tenth of their paychecks in trust for them. The National Farm Workers Union was organized to combat the abuses that farmworkers faced. Chavez emerged as a leader in the farm labor movement, founding the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 in California with Dolores Huerta, forging alliances with other unions, churches and community groups to push for the end of the Bracero program in 1964. While the program ended, wages remained low. Chavez’s NFWA merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to form United Farm Workers. Tomas Villanueva and Guadalupe Gamboa, sons of Yakima Valley farmworkers, met with Chavez in 1966, and came back to formed the United Farm Workers Cooperative in Toppenish, pushing for better wages, sick pay and help applying for food stamps and other assistance. In the 1980s, following Chavez’s calls for boycotting California grapes until workers receive better wages, labor organizers in Yakima sought Chavez’s help securing better wages in the Valley and promoting organized labor. “We invited him to inspire, motivate people for the farmworker movement,” Garcia said.media/Escuelita in Granger, Cesar Chavez.jpegplain2022-08-01T23:12:06+00:001966Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49