Stories from Around the World

On October 6, 1999 students in a Transitional English class at Holtville High School, Holtville, California interviewed Mrs. Juanita Hurtado about her experiences with the United Farmworkers and Cesar Chavez. The interview was done in Spanish and later translated to English.

Interviewer: Where were you working when you were on strike?

Juanita Hurtado: In different places like in the melon, tomato and in the grapes.

I: When did that happen?

JH: Like about 26 years ago, I don't remember the exact date.

I: And can you tell us in what cities and towns you were working?

JH: In Mendota, Los Baos, in Stockton, in those places. [Central California]

I: How many hours were you working each day?

JH: Sometimes we worked six hours, sometimes eight hours in the work and when the people of the union came, they took us out and then we continued working on the strike. Some people went out voluntarily and others were forced to. If they wanted to keep on working they didn't let them work.

I: Where did you stay when you were striking?

JH: Well, when we were on strike right there they gave us lodging. Only the clothes we bought, but they also brought clothes to give to us. If we didn't want the clothes that were there, we bought our own clothes.

I: And the people were happy going on strike?

JH: Many times the youngest ones got excited about the strikes, but the old people knew why they were fighting and all that and they were trying to teach to us too, about why we had to fight to make things better: better wages and so they wouldn't take advantage of us.

I. Did you lose your job because you were in the strike?

JH: Many times because we were working and the strikers came and took us out. And sometimes we were better off in the strike because later we understood it was necessary to be in the strike to make progress in our lives.

I: Did you meet Cesar Chavez?

JH: Not too close up, but yes all of us were there in the strike, he was like a president, because he was there and everybody crowded around, but we couldn't get too close to him.

I: What did you think about him?

JH: We thought well of him; he was fighting for us.

I: Did you go on strike because it was an order or did you like to go on strike?

JH: Because I liked to do it, and because I was invited. I liked being in the middle of the excitement.

I: Did you ever see violence during the strikes?

JH: Many times, many times. Of course Cesar Chavez didn't want violence, but many of us, not everybody, but many didn't agree. There were some that thought they were smart and acted on their own and that's when they burned cars or hurt people, but not because Cesar Chavez was in agreement but rather that individuals wanted to take stronger action  and they got in places and hit people. But also the people inside, they also threw things at the strikers or they mistreated them or many times they tried to run them over with their cars.

I: You just told us that some people kept working in spite of the strike. I'd like to know what was the relation between you who were striking and the workers who kept working?

JH: The people that were in the fields didn't get angry with us. They simply had to work, but they agreed with the strike, only they didn't want to stop working. But they weren't bitter toward us, they were only bitter against people who attacked them. Lots of times they had to defend themselves. Lots of times we talked with them nicely, we even talked with the overseers and everything was all right, only some people behaved badly, but not because Cesar Chavez agreed with that.

I: Do you remember if they ever told you that they accepted to pay more for example?

JH: Yes, they did they raise the salaries. The exact numbers I don't  remember but many times they raised the salary.

I: When we read about Cesar Chavez sometimes we read about the pesticides Sometimes the airplane sprayed the pesticides when the workers were working. Do you remember anything like this?

JH. Yes, like only two or three times, but the airplane passed over one day, and the day they put us to work there. It was when the people got rashes and sometimes the workers needed to go to the house because they were fainting.

I: You think the condition of the workers today in less hard than 30 years ago?

JH. Yes, I think so because today I don' t hear a lot of complaints liked in the past. Today the people have long hoes. They are more convenient and they have machines for everything and before we had to cut the broccoli with our hands and we had to carry the sack on our backs. They used to lift me up sack and all, my friends who emptied the sacks. I was very short and thinner then. They lifted me up sack and all and they put me down.

I: While you were going to work on farms did you stay in a hotel or motel or in special lodgings on the farm?

JH. Long ago they had barracks. There was like a block with many different rooms where only two beds fit, nothing else and the people from the field went to sleep there. They are like hotels, but only for workers and one side for men and the other side for women. The places were very much like a jail where they serve food in big pots. They cooked the food together for all the workers, oat meal or beans all in one giant pot . Sometimes you didn't even want to eat it not because it was dirty it was just because there was so much of it, it looked disgusting. The food was clean, but we preferred to eat a sandwich or whatever.

I: Would it have been possible for you working at that age, to work and study at the same time?

JH: No, because we went out at two o'clock in the morning and were out until sometimes seven or eight at night when we arrived home. We had to be there at two in the morning to get the bus to work. And we always began at six in the morning, but we had to get up much earlier. Sometimes from midnight we were in Calexico waiting. That was because sometimes there wasn't much work so we had to be there from two o'clock on. If you arrived at four o'clock, there was no way you would getwork.

I: Who was in the strike with Cesar Chavez?

JH: I'll tell you that he didn't discriminate. He accepted all the people. He didn't ask for papers to be in the strike. He took Americans, Mexicans, Black people, those who wanted to be in it.

I: Did you win the strike?