1. Latinos in California By far largest ethnic minority in California in the late 20 th century – Mexican Americans Push factors of the early 20 th century – Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) & WWI Most of the immigrants were laborers. Barriers of prejudice and of language blocked their economic advancement and their social assimilation East Los Angeles barrios (neighborhoods)

2. El Congreso del Pueblo de Habla Española (the Congress of Spanish-Speaking People) – a cannery and agricultural workers union Mexican born activist Josefina Fierro de Bright Two glaring wartime episodes of Anglo- American bigotry – the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and the zoot-suit riots Mexican-American experience during and after WWII The Walkout of 1968 - thousands of Mexican students walked out of their classroom

3. The 1968 student “blowouts” in Los Angeles

4. Working the Fields Before 1967, laws that set a minimum wage for most workers did not apply to farm labor There were also no laws covering basic sanitation and health standards for field work they could not get health or unemployment insurance, so any injury or illness might mean starvation for them and their families After WW II, most field workers were unskilled laborers from terribly poor parts of Mexico, other Latin American countries, and Asia

5. Like the slum shown in this photo, Sal Si Puedes was filled with mud, trash, and shacks When pay day came, field workers were at the mercy of their bosses. Workers were underpaid and sometimes not paid at all Inside migrant worker’s home

6. Working for Change in the Fields In the 1960s Cesar Chavez organized and led the first successful agricultural labor union in the continental U.S. The Community Service Organization (CSO), a group that tried to help exploited Mexican Americans Building the NFWA (National Farm Workers Association) Chavez’s ally Dolores Huerta

7. Cesar Chavez

8. Dolores Huerta

10. Larry Itliong (1917-1933) - In 1956 he founded the Filipino Farm Labor Union in California California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act (1975) was the first law ever passed in the U.S. that guaranteed rights for agricultural workers

11. Larry Itliong

12. The UFW flag represents an organized group seeking fair treatment. To Chavez it represented “a strong beautiful sign of hope” The eagle represents strength and power. The design was based on the Aztec eagle that appears on the Mexican flag The motto was and continues to be “Viva la Causa” (Long Live the Cause)