Latino Activism

The Farm Workers Movement of the 1960s

Complete this lesson if you missed the Zoom on Thursday 5/27 or Friday 5/28.

Multiple Choice

Mexico ceded California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona to the United States in 1848 in which of the following?

• Treaty of Paris

• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• Treaty of Cession

Mexican-American War:

1846-1848

• after Texas joined joined the US in 1845, territory disputes with Mexico began

• American explorers discovered the richness of California & the US desperately wanted its own territory

• President Polk offered to purchase the territory from Mexico, but Mexico wasn't interested

• So the US, provoked Mexico into war over border disputes in Texas

• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the US-MX border at the Rio Grande River and forced Mexico to cede a huge amount of territory in the Southwest

Latino Immigration

• around 100,000 Mexicans lived in the land ceded by Mexico in 1848

• in the 1910s, another million Mexican immigrants entered the US following the Mexican Revolution

• the US encouraged Mexican immigration through labor treaties like the Bracero Program during the 1940s and 1950s

• in the 1960s, the Latino population in the US grew from 3 million to more than 9 million as immigrants from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Central America, & South America

Multiple Choice

Which of the following best characterizes the 1960s?

• Stock Market crash, unemployment, New Deal job programs

• the Harlem Renaissance, jazz, flappers

• Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War

As the Latino population grew in the 1960s, so did their demand for representation & equality.

The Chicano Movement - El Movimiento - fought for equal opportunity & respect for their culture.

Day-to-Day

Migrant Conditions

• farmworkers earned only 70 cents an hour

• no toilets in the fields

• no cold drinking water

• no breaks from sunup to sundown

Open Ended

What's 1 interesting thing you learned (or already know) about Cesar Chavez?

The Farm

Worker Movement

• thousands of Latino workers on California's fruit & vegetable farms did backbreaking work for little pay & few benefits

• migrant workers who tried to advocate for better pay or treatment were threatened with deportation

• 2 key leaders - Dolores Huerta & Cesar Chavez - founded the National Farm Workers Association

The United Farm Workers Association

• Huerta & Chavez insisted that California's produce companies accept their union as the bargaining agent for farm workers

• when California grape growers refused in 1965, the NFWA launched a nationwide boycott of California grapes

• union members were sent across the country to convince Americans not to buy the companies' grapes until they recognized the labor union

Multiple Choice

Who created the slogan "Si Se Puede"?

• Cesar Chavez

• Barack Obama

• Dolores Huerta

Multiple Choice

Why did Chicano migrant workers establish the United Farm Workers?

• To exert influence on foreign policy

• To obtain fair wages and improve labor conditions

• To attain the right to vote in federal elections

• To change citizenship requirements

Multiple Choice

How did Chavez accomplish the change referred to in this excerpt?

• By promoting military service as an opportunity for minority youths

• By filing legal cases to overturn segregation in public facilities

• By organizing an economic boycott to improve working conditions for migrant farmers

• By protesting fines imposed on employers for hiring illegal immigrants

Multiple Choice

This 1972 poster depicts an organization originally formed to advocate -

• publicly funded health care for children

• better economic treatment of migrant workers

• a retirement system for farm laborers

• equal employment opportunities for women

After class today,

check your grades & make sure to complete + submit work to replace 0s.