El Movimiento

Our new text, Shot in America: Television, the State and the Rise of Chicano Cinema, has spawned my growing interest in Chicano culture. Searching through endless pages of Chicano art, I came across this Graphic Design poster created for The Grape Boycotts of the United Farm Workers Association (UFWA) in the 1960s. In the early 1940s Mexican workers entered the United States in hopes of obtaining work and a better life--they entered the excruciating world of the labor-intensive industry. Known as "braceros", these workers endured terrible working conditions, low wages and abysmal living corridors in farms across America... we are taking a mere TWENTY cents for over three hours of work. Over 1,000 farmer workers joined the UFWA and rallied for better wages and conditions. Civil rights activists, Cesar Chavez successfully lead strikes and boycotts against grape growers which ultimately resulted in national recognition and the signing of union contracts, better wages and working conditions.

"It's ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves." -C. Chavez