The Farm Workers' Movement in the RGV research guide provides links to resources from our library catalog and archival collections, relating to historic people and events in the labor movement of the Rio Grande Valley. This research guide aims to help students interested on researching farm work as it relates to labor and civil rights, including peonage, strikes, and unions. External resources and resources for educators are also included.
Luis Guerra, Hasta la Gloria, 1977, screenprint on paper, overall: 17 1/2 × 22 1/2 in. (44.5 × 57.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Frank K. Ribelin Endowment, 2019.43.1, ©1977, Luis Guerra.
This collection consists of 53 photographs of agricultural activity in the Rio Grande Valley and the McAllen, Texas region, ca.1920. Four bear the "Ziebell, McAllen" studio name, six bear the "Eskildsen" name, and four have no studio identification marks.
Photo: Black and white photograph. Ebony Grove Dairy, McAllen, TX. Two men with milking equipment, cows lined on both sides of the indoor dairy farm.
Farm worker strikes, grower violence, and Mexican American women's activism, 1975 - 1979, Container: 179, Box: 1, Folder: 13. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg Campus.
La Casita and Starr County were the sites of other major episodes of labor and racial unrest in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, as well as in the 1930s and again in dramatic fashion in 1966-1967.
This folder documents a peonage scheme in Willacy County in the fall of 1926, in which many unwitting victims (primarily Mexican Americans) were arrested on false charges and forced to work the cotton fields. It also documents the related lynching of four ethnic Mexicans and an Austrian by an Anglo mob led by the Willacy County Sheriff, near Raymondville, and the legal proceedings that developed from these incidents.
A newsletter published in Spanish and English by the Texas Farm Workers' Union "La Voz del campesino de Texas"
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The collection contains research material compiled by Holly Hewlett, pertaining to the 1966 La Casita Farms worker strike as well as the involvement of Archbishop Robert E. Lucey of San Antonio and the Catholic Church. The collection consists primarily of photocopies of newspaper articles, photocopies of records and correspondence, three oral history interviews on cassette tape, and Hewlett’s honors thesis presentation.
Because he hailed from a district with a large agricultural base, Congressman de la Garza became a member of the Committee on Agriculture. In 1967 he served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Department Operations and Foreign Agriculture. From 1981 to 1994 de la Garza was the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, becoming the first Hispanic since 1917 to chair a standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
During his tenure as Chairman, Representative de la Garza successfully led the way for the House to pass three omnibus farm bills (1981, 1985, and 1990), a major overhaul of the agricultural lending system, Federal crop insurance reform, a major reorganization of the USDA, reforms in Federal pesticide laws, and numerous other measures to assist U.S. agriculture, encourage rural economic development, and improve human nutrition. In 1976 de la Garza became one of the founding members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which he chaired from 1989 to 1991.
The Rio Grande Valley Oral History Collection consists of over 500 digitized oral histories recorded and collected by faculty, staff, students, and community members and donated to the University Library. Oral histories provide unique, and in many instances, otherwise unavailable written information, and as such provide valuable insight into life in the region, including immigration, military service, ranching, education, agriculture, border violence, sports, and much more. Interviews of note include:
Congressman Hinojosa has distinguished himself as an advocate for education, Social Security, health care, agriculture, veterans’ issues, economic development and infrastructure projects. The Congressional Papers of Rubén Hinojosa consists of 291 linear feet of materials dating from 1997 - 2016. The papers were created during Rubén Hinojosa's time as an elected official in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 - 2016, representing the 15th Congressional District in South Texas. The collection consists of legislative material as well as casework of local projects and issues.
After years of restrictive immigration policy and at the outset of WWII, the United States found itself with a labor deficit in critical industries like agriculture and transportation. The Mexican Farm Labor Program, better known as the Bracero Program, was a series of agreements between the U.S. and Mexico to allow laborers from Mexico (braceros) to work legally and temporarily in the U.S. It is important to note that this was also the revival of an earlier U.S.-Mexico program during WWI (1917-1921). Between 1942 and 1964 more than 4.5 million braceros came to work in states like Texas and California.
In exchange for their short-term work contracts, braceros were promised good treatment and fair wages, as well as free housing, health care, and the return to Mexico when their contracts were up. However, in practice, braceros were exploited, poorly treated, and underpaid.
United States-Mexico Border [JV]. Reference Files, ELIBR-0062. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg Campus.
The series contains research material compiled by Scott Cook, pertaining to the study of organization of brick production along the U.S. Texas-Mexico border. The series consists primarily of books, partial books, journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, manuscripts, papers, and presentations.
The role of the bracero in the economic and cultural dynamics of Mexico; of Mexico; a case of Chihuahua. by 
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Rebecca Flores Harrington (1942 - ) Antonio Orendain (1930 - 2016) Francisco "Pancho" Medrano (1920–2002) Alfred Young Allee (1905–1987) |
La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) Founded by labor rights activist César Chávez & Dolores Huerta, LUPE builds stronger, healthier communities where colonia residents use the power of civic engagement for social change. League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) LULAC is the largest and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States. LULAC advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 1,000 LULAC councils nationwide. The organization involves and serves all Hispanic nationality groups. Begun in 1962 by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Gilbert Padilla and other early organizers, the United Farm Workers of America is the nation’s first enduring and largest farm workers union. |
The research guides compiled by UTRGV staff and students are intended to assist patrons who are embarking upon new research endeavors. Our goal is to expand their knowledge of the types of resources available on a given topic, including books, archival materials, and websites. In so doing, our compilers have taken care to include collections, digital items, and resources that may be accessed not only through UTRGV but also via other institutions, repositories, and websites.
We wholeheartedly respect the research interests of others. Therefore, please contact us if you wish to submit a resource for consideration, or if you have a question about or an issue with a specific cited resource.
The 1966-1967 South Texas farm worker strike : a case study of farm worker powerlessness by 
Blood Oranges Colonialism and Agriculture in the South Texas Borderlands by
Blood Oranges traces the origins and legacy of racial differences between Anglo Americans and ethnic Mexicans (Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans) in the South Texas borderlands in the twentieth century. Author Tim Bowman uncovers a complex web of historical circumstances that caused ethnic Mexicans in the region to rank among the poorest, least educated, and unhealthiest demographic in the country. The key to this development, Bowman finds, was a “modern colonization movement,” a process that had its roots in the Mexican-American war of the nineteenth century but reached its culmination in the twentieth century. South Texas, in Bowman’s words, became an “internal economy just inside of the US-Mexico border.” Beginning in the twentieth century, Anglo Americans consciously transformed the region from that of a culturally “Mexican” space, with an economy based on cattle, into one dominated by commercial agriculture focused on citrus and winter vegetables. As Anglos gained political and economic control in the region, they also consolidated their power along racial lines with laws and customs not unlike the “Jim Crow” system of southern segregation. Bowman argues that the Mexican labor class was thus transformed into a marginalized racial caste, the legacy of which remained in place even as large-scale agribusiness cemented its hold on the regional economy later in the century. Blood Oranges stands to be a major contribution to the history of South Texas and borderland studies alike.
Managed Migrations by
2020 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Book Award Winner Honorable Mention, Ramirez Family Award for Most Significant Scholarly Book, Texas Institute of Letters, 2019 Managed Migrations examines the concurrent development of a border agricultural industry and changing methods of border enforcement in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas during the past century. Needed at one moment, scorned at others, Mexican agricultural workers have moved back and forth across the US-Mexico border for the past century. In South Texas, Anglo growers' dreams of creating a modern agricultural empire depended on continuous access to Mexican workers. While this access was officially regulated by immigration laws and policy promulgated in Washington, DC, in practice the migration of Mexican labor involved daily, on-the-ground negotiations among growers, workers, and the US Border Patrol. In a very real sense, these groups set the parameters of border enforcement policy. Managed Migrations examines the relationship between immigration laws and policy and the agricultural labor relations of growers and workers in South Texas and El Paso during the 1940s and 1950s. Cristina Salinas argues that immigration law was mainly enacted not in embassies or the halls of Congress but on the ground, as a result of daily decisions by the Border Patrol that growers and workers negotiated and contested. She describes how the INS devised techniques to facilitate high-volume yearly deportations and shows how the agency used these enforcement practices to manage the seasonal agricultural labor migration across the border. Her pioneering research reveals the great extent to which immigration policy was made at the local level, as well as the agency of Mexican farmworkers who managed to maintain their mobility and kinship networks despite the constraints of grower paternalism and enforcement actions by the Border Patrol.
Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas by
In Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas, Emilio Zamora traces the experiences of Mexican workers on the American home front during World War II as they moved from rural to urban areas and sought better-paying jobs in rapidly expanding industries. Contending that discrimination undermined job opportunities, Zamora investigates the intervention by Mexico in the treatment of workers, the U.S. State Department's response, and Texas' emergence as a key site for negotiating the application of the Good Neighbor Policy. He examines the role of women workers, the evolving political struggle, the rise of the liberal-urban coalition, and the conservative tradition in Texas. Zamora also looks closely at civil and labor rights#150;related efforts, implemented by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Fair Employment Practice Committee.
Consuming Mexican Labor by
Mexican migration to the United States and Canada is a highly contentious issue in the eyes of many North Americans, and every generation seems to construct the northward flow of labor as a brand new social problem. The history of Mexican labor migration to the United States, from the Bracero Program (1942-1964) to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), suggests that Mexicans have been actively encouraged to migrate northward when labor markets are in short supply, only to be turned back during economic downturns. In this timely book, Mize and Swords dissect the social relations that define how corporations, consumers, and states involve Mexican immigrant laborers in the politics of production and consumption. The result is a comprehensive and contemporary look at the increasingly important role that Mexican immigrants play in the North American economy.
Felix Longoria's Wake by
Winner, Tullis Prize, Texas State Historical Association, 2004 Private First Class Felix Longoria earned a Bronze Service Star, a Purple Heart, a Good Conduct Medal, and a Combat Infantryman's badge for service in the Philippines during World War II. Yet the only funeral parlor in his hometown of Three Rivers, Texas, refused to hold a wake for the slain soldier because "the whites would not like it." Almost overnight, this act of discrimination became a defining moment in the rise of Mexican American activism. It launched Dr. Héctor P. García and his newly formed American G.I. Forum into the vanguard of the Mexican civil rights movement, while simultaneously endangering and advancing the career of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, who arranged for Longoria's burial with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. In this book, Patrick Carroll provides the first fully researched account of the Longoria controversy and its far-reaching consequences. Drawing on extensive documentary evidence and interviews with many key figures, including Dr. García and Mrs. Longoria, Carroll convincingly explains why the Longoria incident, though less severe than other acts of discrimination against Mexican Americans, ignited the activism of a whole range of interest groups from Argentina to Minneapolis. By putting Longoria's wake in a national and international context, he also clarifies why it became such a flash point for conflicting understandings of bereavement, nationalism, reason, and emotion between two powerful cultures--Mexicanidad and Americanism.
From South Texas to the Nation : The Exploitation of Mexican Labor in the Twentieth Century by
In the early years of the twentieth century, newcomer farmers and migrant Mexicans forged a new world in South Texas. In just a decade, this vast region, previously considered too isolated and desolate for large-scale agriculture, became one of the United States' most lucrative farming regions and one of its worst places to work. By encouraging mass migration from Mexico, paying low wages, selectively enforcing immigration restrictions, toppling older political arrangements, and periodically immobilizing the workforce, growers created a system of labor controls unique in its levels of exploitation. Ethnic Mexican residents of South Texas fought back by organizing and by leaving, migrating to destinations around the United States where employers eagerly hired them--and continued to exploit them. In From South Texas to the Nation, John Weber reinterprets the United States' record on human and labor rights. This important book illuminates the way in which South Texas pioneered the low-wage, insecure, migration-dependent labor system on which so many industries continue to depend.
Huelga : the first hundred days of the great Delano grape strike by
In September 1966, in the shabby California town of Delano, began the movement which has shaken the state's brutal system of agriculture to its base. This is the story of a strike without parallel, a strike involving the long-dead writer Jack London, a strike involving bishops, a strike where management has its own private air force. Out of the tumult and confusion of this long overdue bid by America's poorest workers for freedom and dignity comes this outstanding book Nelson, the author, writes from the very heart of the Delano crisis. The result is an "insider's" account which is compelling and often brilliant. This is the first book to come out of the very beginnings of a genuine people's movement. It is not only an entertaining piece of reportage, it is a document of social importance.
Labor Rights Are Civil Rights by
In 1937, Mexican workers were among the strikers and supporters beaten, arrested, and murdered by Chicago policemen in the now infamous Republic Steel Mill Strike. Using this event as a springboard, Zaragosa Vargas embarks on the first full-scale history of the Mexican-American labor movement in twentieth-century America. Absorbing and meticulously researched, Labor Rights Are Civil Rightspaints a multifaceted portrait of the complexities and contours of the Mexican American struggle for equality from the 1930s to the postwar era. Drawing on extensive archival research, Vargas focuses on the large Mexican American communities in Texas, Colorado, and California. As he explains, the Great Depression heightened the struggles of Spanish speaking blue-collar workers, and employers began to define citizenship to exclude Mexicans from political rights and erect barriers to resistance. Mexican Americans faced hostility and repatriation. The mounting strife resulted in strikes by Mexican fruit and vegetable farmers. This collective action, combined with involvement in the Communist party, led Mexican workers to unionize. Vargas carefully illustrates how union mobilization in agriculture, tobacco, garment, and other industries became an important vehicle for achieving Mexican American labor and civil rights. He details how interracial unionism proved successful in cross-border alliances, in fighting discriminatory hiring practices, in building local unions, in mobilizing against fascism and in fighting brutal racism. No longer willing to accept their inferior status, a rising Mexican American grassroots movement would utilize direct action to achieve equality.
Borderlands of Slavery by
Borderlands of Slavery explores how the existence of two involuntary labor systems--Mexican peonage and Indian captivity--in the nineteenth-century Southwest impacted the transformation of America's judicial and political institutions during the antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras.
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