This unit exposes students to the general history of the Filipino presence in the United States and the specific role of Filipinos in the organization of the California farm workers' movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Students go beyond textbook and popular media accounts of the farm worker movement to appreciate the importance of Filipino leaders like Philip Vera Cruz, who promoted ethnic unity in the labor movement and larger struggles for social justice. The lesson will culminate with students writing their own textbook revisions that detail the Filipino role in California’s farm worker movement, including the formation of the United Farm Workers (UFW) and the successful grape boycott of the 1960s.

Lesson 1: This lesson focuses on the nature of agricultural work in California and the multiracial/multiethnic groups making up the rural workforce. Students analyze primary sources in the form of poetry written by different groups to understand common struggles shared by California farm workers and generate ideas about what things would divide workers. Students then write their own poetry or a letter about the conditions faced by workers.

Lesson 2: This lesson focuses specifically on the history of Filipinos in California and how they became involved in agriculture. Students read a biography about Philip Vera Cruz and create a graphic historical timeline that connects events from his life to a broader historical and generational context.

Lesson 3: Students “open up” a textbook account of the founding of the UFW by analyzing a number of documents that reveal the pivotal role of Filipino workers in the farm workers’ movement of the 1960s and 1970s. They then “revise” a textbook account to be more inclusive of Filipino contributions.

Students will:

1. Pass out “Lesson 1 Class Work Homework Philip Vera Cruz UFW” handout. Remind students to keep all handouts for homework assignment.
2. In order to connect to students’ prior knowledge and introduce some of the themes of the unit, have students complete a journal or “Quick-Write” for the following question (refer to Unit slides for the writing prompt):
   How might working in a factory compare with working on a farm?
3. Students will write silently for 10 minutes.
   Options: Have students write a short paragraph, create a Venn Diagram or side-by-side drawings that contrast the two.
4. Debrief: Debrief with students. Stress the apparent differences between the two. Then point out that farm work in California agriculture is similar in many ways to work in a factory. Just like workers in factories began to form unions to protect their rights, so too did California agricultural workers struggle to form unions.

Slide 5: Features of California Agriculture
Modern California agriculture (during the period of statehood) started out producing wheat for local and foreign markets. Because of the conditions (small labor supply and scarce water) wheat production was highly mechanized. Only very large farms could support this mode of production because the capital required to invest in machinery was very expensive.

Slide 6: Geography and Climate
California is uniquely situated to fill a niche market; it is able to produce many “summer crops” during the mild winters. Multiple crops per year are also possible.

Slide 7: 1890s-1940s
Due to soil depletion and a variety of other factors, wheat production went into steep decline by the late 19th century. Smaller farms producing a variety of exotic crops emerged. The nature of the crops stimulated the growth of canning and packaging industries, which hired large numbers of women workers in particular, who worked in packing plants and canneries that operated much like factories. During this period in the 1930s, the Dust Bowl, which brought about severe dust storms that damaged agriculture through much of the Midwest, brought about a large migration of workers to California.

Slide 8: Farm Workers
California agriculture continued to rely primarily on a migratory workforce that followed the harvest schedule. Large landowners dominated farming in the Central and Imperial Valleys. These landowners acquired labor through a system in which bosses would find and deliver workers of their own ethnicity or race to the places they were needed. This system of intermediaries and the temporary nature of farm jobs mimicked the relations of capital and labor in industrial firms because personalist or paternalistic relations between the owner and employees was essentially eliminated. Additionally, the tasks themselves were extremely repetitive, low-skill, and monotonous.

Slide 9: Multiracial/Multiethnic Workforce
From the very beginning, California farm labor has been multiracial and multiethnic. The race and/or ethnicity of the workforce has changed over time, largely due to historical circumstances. Chinese workers were very common until the late 1800s, when the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act reduced their numbers. Japanese, Mexican, Sikh, and Southern/Eastern European immigrants filled the void until WWI. By that time, Japanese immigration had been curtailed by the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, Sikh and European immigration declined due to the war and, later, restrictive quotas. After the SpanishAmerican War, Filipinos were increasingly recruited to work in the mines and fields of the Western part of the United States. Mexican workers were a significant presence in the West from the early 20th century when Mexico was in the midst of a revolutionary civil war. Although hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Mexican Americans were deported during the Depression years, by the 1940s and 1950s, thousands of Mexican workers were coming to the United States through a temporary federal worker program known as the Bracero Program. By the middle of the 20th century, most farm workers were Mexican or of Mexican descent.

Slide 10: Effects of Racial and Ethnic Differences
Growers and labor bosses intentionally maintained racial and ethnic differences among workers. Separation impeded unionization efforts by limiting contact between workers, maintaining linguistic differences, and fostering conflict and competition. Ethnically or racially-based labor gangs were also viewed as being more productive because they often united friends or family members or, at the very least, compatriots in a frequently hostile work environment. Therefore, while gang labor could benefit workers individually by making work more bearable, it made large-scale unionization very difficult, especially given grower hostility toward unionization and their influence over law enforcement and state government. Additionally, when racial or ethnic groups did try to strike, bosses would hire other ethnic groups as strikebreakers. Two major exceptions to the tendency for ethnic/racial groups to compete were the Mexican-Filipino Lettuce Strike of 1930 and the Japanese-Mexican labor strike against growers in Washington state in 1943. In the first case, hundreds of Mexican and Filipino farm workers spontaneously walked off the job in response to declining wages and working conditions. They were eventually joined by 5,000 other farm workers and started a wave of labor militancy that was viciously put down by growers. The 1943 Japanese-Mexican labor strike took place in response to a police order restricting the movement of male workers of Japanese and Mexican descent to certain areas of Dayton, Washington. Hundreds of Mexican workers (primarily braceros) and Japanese workers (on temporary leave from internment camps) struck until the city agreed to lift the restrictions.

To have students understand the reality of working in America that many immigrant workers faced, in comparison to the idealized dreams they had for immigrating to America, have students read and analyze poetry from Chinese, Japanese, Sikh, Mexican, and Filipino workers.

Ask students:

Ask students to complete page 2 of the Lesson 1 Class Work Homework handout.

Write a poem or series of haikus depicting life for workers in California in the early 1900s.

OR

Imagine that you are a farm worker in California writing a letter home to your family. How would you describe life in California for your family? Be sure to include sensory details and historical facts about the nature of California farming.

For this activity, students will depict the history of Philip’s life by alternating his personal experiences with larger historical events affecting Filipinos in the United States.

• The goal is to show how the struggles and accomplishments of Philip Vera Cruz can represent the larger Filipino presence in California.
• Students should complete the homework in “Lesson 2 Class Work Homework” handout. Encourage creativity! Remind students to reference the unique features of California agriculture.