Timeline of Latino Farmer Movements in the U.S.

por Cynthia Espinosa

I had the honor this summer to work, grow, and be inspired by Soul Fire Farm located in Grafton, New York. Soul Fire Farm ia family farm committed to the dismantling of oppressive structures that misguide our food system. I was a co-facilitator for the 2015 Black and Latino Farmer Immersion Program (BLFI) which was an incredible experience for me as a Latina, food justice advocate, and educator.

BLFI Session 1 participants and facilitators. Photo by: Jonah Vitale-Wolff

BLFI Session 1 participants and facilitators. Photo by: Jonah Vitale-Wolff

BLFI Session 2

BLFI Session 2 participants and facilitators. Photo by: Jonah Vitale-Wolff

As a Latina Environmental Educator, I had the pleasure to research and learn about the Latino Farmer Movement and History in the United States. This information was gathered to teach two 1-hour sessions in conjunction with Leah Penniman, food justice educator and farmer at Soul Fire Farm. The class was titled: “Black and Latino Farmer Movements”. The information below is a small portion of the great historical presence Latino had and continue to have in the U.S. Food system. The information that has been gathered includes farmer movements and historical anecdotes that are related to Latinos and farmland.

Latino Farmer Movement  Timeline

1903: More than 1,200 Mexican and Japanese farm workers in Oxnard, California organized the first farm worker’s union called the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association (JMLA). “Later, it will be the first union to win a strike against the California agricultural industry” (Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance Project, n.d.).  

 Source: United Food and Commercial Workers 324. (n.d.) 1903 Oxnard Beet Sows of Seeds of Diversity. Retrieved from: https://www.ufcw324.org/About_Us/Mission_and_History/Labor_History/1903_Oxnard_Beet_Sows_the_Seeds_of_Diversity/

Source: United Food and Commercial Workers 324. (n.d.) 1903 Oxnard Beet Sows of Seeds of Diversity.

1933: Possibly the largest agricultural strike called El Monte Strike, was led by Latino unions in California. The strike was lead to protest the declining wages rate for strawberry pickers. By May 1933, wages went down to nine cents an hour. Growers agreed to a settlement in July including a wage increase of twenty cents an hour or $1.50 for a nine-hour work day (Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance Project, n.d.).     

1942: The Bracero Program starts. This program was created by executive order to allow Mexican citizens to work temporarily in the United States. The work for the braceros were low-paying agricultural work. A total of 4.6 millions people signed the Bracero contract. The program ends in 1964 (Bracero History Archive, n.d.).

1950: Agreement Governing Employment of Puerto Rican Labor came into place to hire Puerto Ricans for season agricultural employment in the United States (Missouri Farm Labor Bulletin: Division of Employment Security, 1950).

1965: Cesar Chaves and Dolores Huertas funded the United Farm Workers Association (UFWA) in Delano, California. Huertas becomes the first woman to lead such a union. They joined a strike started by Filipino grape pickers in Delano. They organized the Grape boycott in the U.S. and Canada. The grape boycott became one of the most significant social justice movements for farm workers in the United States (Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance Project, n.d.).

1965: Luis Valdez, American playwright, actor, and film director, funded the world famous theater called “El Teatro Campesino”. El Teatro Campesino was the first farm workers theater in Delano, California. Actors entertained and educated farm workers about their rights (Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance Project, n.d.) 

Source: San Francisco State University. (2007). Cultivating creativity: The arts and the Farm Worker’s movement during the 60’s and 70’s. Retrieved from: http://www.library.sfsu.edu/exhibits/cultivating/intropages/teatrocampesino.html

Source: San Francisco State University. (2007). Cultivating creativity: The arts and the Farm Worker’s movement during the 60’s and 70’s.

1993: Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Immokalee, Florida comes to place to raise 1 cent per tomato pound for farm workers (Keshari et. al, 2014). The Coalition of Immokalee Workers successfully created the Fair Food Program which growers, buyers, and corporations signed up to raise one cent per pound. Other sections of the Fair Food Program include: industry-wide implementation of a 24-hour complaint hotline and rapid complaint investigation, worker-to-worker education on worker rights and responsibilities,  human rights-based Code of Conduct with enforcable zero tolerance policies for forced labor, child labor, violence, and sexual assault, and industry-wide monitoring of the Fair Food Program (Fair Food Standards Council, 2014).

1995: Acequia farmers in San Luis Valley in Colorado joined other local activists-driven organizations to oppose and successfully defeat corporations and mining companies. If not stopped, the corporations and companies would have redeveloped land in San Luis Valley. The major concern was land take over and contamination of water supplies. Acequia farmers also joined protestors to secure a ranch in San Luis Valley (Peña, 2005).

2006: The Great American Boycott took place by immigrants, including Latinos. The boycott was a protest against a legislative proposal which did not go to Congress, however, it was a high vote from the House of Representatives (The Library of Congress, 2005). The bill would have made residing illegally in the U.S. a felony and impose stiffer penalties on those who employed non-citizens. What stood out in the Great American Boycott was that some California’s politicians and religious institutions urge people to not partake in the boycott. Three major companies were supportive of the protestors. The first company was Cargill Meat Solutions which closed 5 U.S. beefs plants and two hogs plants. 15,000 workers from Cargill attended the boycott. The second company was Smithfield Food of Virginia who stated on their press release it will take time during the boycott to help employees write to U.S. Senators and representatives demanding change of immigration laws.The third company, Tyson Food, shutdown meatpacking plants to have workers attend the boycott (Lendon, 2006).

2009: After a dead tragedy of a farm worker in Burlington Vermont, the organization Migrant Justice- Justicia Migrante, comes to light to build the voice, capacity, and power of the farmworker community and engage community partners to organize for economic justice and human rights.  Migrant Justice-Justicia Migrante, has been working on building networks of farmer workers, farmers and allies to pass legislature in Vermont to provide access to licenses regardless of immigration status (Migrant Justice, 2014).

Source: Migrant Justice. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.migrantjustice.net/

Source: Migrant Justice. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.migrantjustice.net/

2014: Migrant Justice-Justicia Migrante created the Milk with Dignity! Campaign to improve the livelihoods of dairy farm workers and farmers by enlisting participating retailers to purchase and provide premiums to dairy farms that comply with Migrant Justice’s Milk with Dignity Code of Conduct. Migrant Justice-Justicia Migrante’s farm worker leaders have been engaged with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to learn their process in regards to the Fair Food Program (Migrant Justice, 2014).

References

Bracero History Archive (n.d.). About the Bracero Program. Retrieved from: http://  braceroarchive.org/about

Fair Food Standards Council. (2014). Fair Food Program Annual Report. Immokalee, FL: Justice Safer Espinoza. Retrieved from: http://www.fairfoodstandards.org/reports/ 14SOTP-Web.pdf

Keshari, S, Rawal, S, Longoria, E, and Fish, H. (Producers), & Rawal, S. (Director). (2014). Food Chains (Motion Picture). United States: Screen Media Films. 

Lendon, B. (2006, May 1). U.S. Prepares for ‘A day without an Immigrant’: Organizers plan massive boycott on Monday to stop business as usual. CNN. Retrieved from:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/28/boycott/index.html

Migrant Justice (2014). Milk with Dignity! Campaign. Retrieved from:

http://www.migrantjustice.net/milk-with-dignity

Migrant Justice (2014). Photo History Timeline. Retrieved from: http://migrantjustice.net/sites/default/files/2014-11%205%20anos%20de%20lucha%20%282%20paginas%29.pdf

Missouri Farm Labor Bulletin: Division of Employment Security. (1950). Recruitment of Puerto Rican Labor for Seasonal Agricultural Employment. (Bulletin No. 5). pp. 40-42  Retrieved from: https://www.vec.virginia.gov/vecportal/employer/pdf/ FarmPlacementHandbookPT2.pdf

Peña, D. (2005) Mexican Americans and the Environment: Tierra y vida. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 

Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance Project. (n.d.). Latino Civil Rights Timeline, 1903-2006. Retrieved from: http://www.tolerance.org/latino-civil-rights-timeline.

The Library of Congress. (2005). Bill Text 109th Congress (2005-2006) H.R.4437.RFS. Retrieved from: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.4437.RFS:


Teaching about nature= finding myself (Final part)

After facilitating the first workshop through Project Choices

I found myself looking for other ways to introduce nature

Because I enjoy giving some educational mixture…

Truly art, music, and poetry give us voices.


Contemplating lectures, discussions, and art creation,

I ended at Dean Technical High School giving students time for exploration

About nature, themselves, the connections we have

From the trees to the concrete because we are all one.

Dean 1

dean 2

dean 3


After a fun game of nature scavenger hunt,

The students took paint, brushes and canvass to create a piece of art.

The art that now hangs in their school cafeteria, reminds them of the outdoors

Because we had fun, discussions, and connections thanks to Latino Outdoors!

dean 4

dean 5

dean 6

dean 7

dean 8


Teaching about nature=finding myself Part. 1

During the week of May 4-8, 2015, I was honored to lead 2 workshops for high school students. These workshops were part of an ongoing effort from the Holyoke Adolescent Sexual Health and Pregnancy Prevention Accountability Committee (HASHPPAC). HASHPPAC’s mission is to develop community-based, multifaceted approaches to decrease teen pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in Holyoke, Massachusetts. For their ongoing campaign called “You Have Choices”, HASHPPAC decided to introduce workshops for the teens teaching them how to get involved in their community. The workshops were facilitated by organizations, the community, and Latino Outdoors was fortunate enough to participate!

It was extremely exciting to be asked to facilitate a workshop related to the environment. The first workshop took place at Holyoke High School. I had an amazing experience with 2 teens, Carmen and Tatyana.

Carmen & Tatyana

Carmen (left) and Tatyana (right). Two powerful teens from Holyoke, Massachusetts.

The first question I asked them was, “How do you define nature?”

   “Nature for me, is something beautiful, brings me peace, I listen to ocean waves before I go to sleep because it’s boring.” -Tatyana said

“haha. I love listening to the waves too! How is it boring? Maybe you mean you get so relaxed that it may feel boring?” – I asked

“YES! That is what I mean, it is relaxing. I can forget about the world and just be relaxed and in peace” -Tatyana added.

“Cynthia, can I say it in Spanish”- Carmen asked

“Por favor!” -Cynthia said

“La naturaleza es algo increíble, es bello y la necesitamos. Muchos no la aprecian y les estan haciendo daño. Tenemos que ayudarla.”- Carmen added

My heart was so happy to hear these answers, not because they were connected to nature in their own different, beautiful ways, but how I saw a reflection of me in these two powerful girls.

We proceeded to complete a Nature Scavenger Hunt that I adapted from the High Trails Outdoors Educational Center. One of the list items was to look for evidence of animals. We came across this tree, and saw ants and talked about how scary they look once you get close to them, yet how cool they are. Then we saw this “No Parking Any Time” sign being ‘eaten’ by this tree. tree & sign

 “Isn’t this incredible ladies?”- I asked

“Yeah, nature takes over.”-Carmen

“You can’t even see the sign anymore”-Tatyana

After the incredible conversation, discovery, and fun, we walked back to the cafeteria to hydrate ourselves and give ourselves props for completing the scavenger hunt! Later, we ended  our time together talking about how challenging it is to be a Latina and how many expectations are made by society of what we should look, be and act like. What was wonderful was me being able to see myself years back with the same frustrations as a young Latina and I was able to give Tatyana and Carmen the space to express themselves, be themselves, and cherish their grace as amazing young, powerful, Latina girls.

Those moments that are not accounted for in my curriculum design, are the ones that I find most precious, life changing, and incredible. This experience speaks to what Jose Gonzalez, founder of Latino Outdoors, mentioned “this is our voice, this is our heritage, these are our connections to these outdoors spaces” and by Tatyana and Carmen having a connection to the outdoors right at their school, we were all able to connect on a deeper level and empower each other as Latinas.

Que viva el poder.