The Politics of Produce · Episode 12 of 17 · 21 min
Blood and Wine: Grapes, Delano, and a Movement
Modern American farmworker organizing was born in a grape field. The 1965 Delano strike began with Filipino workers under Larry Itliong and was joined by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. The table-grape boycott turned a supermarket aisle into a picket line, and the movement's later contradictions are kept in view.
Who's who
- Larry Itliong+2 more episodesFilipino organizer who led the September 1965 Delano walkout
- Philip Vera CruzFilipino organizer and UFW vice president
- Cesar Chavez+3 more episodesfounder of the NFWA and face of the UFW
- Dolores Huerta+3 more episodesNFWA co-founder and chief negotiator
- Robert F. Kennedypolitician who stood with Chavez at the end of his 1968 fast
- Walter Reuther+1 more episodeUAW leader among the boycott's allies
Where it happens
- Delano, California+2 more episodestown where the 1965 grape strike began
- Coachella Valley, Californiasite of the 1965 wage win Delano workers demanded
- Sacramento, California+4 more episodesdestination of the 1966 pilgrimage from Delano
Timeline
- September 8, 1965Filipino AWOC workers walk out of Delano vineyards
- September 16, 1965Chavez's NFWA votes to join the strike
- March-April 1966300-mile march from Delano to Sacramento
- August 1966AWOC and NFWA merge into the UFW Organizing Committee
- July 1970major Delano growers sign UFW contracts
- March 2026reports of abuse by Chavez prompt a reckoning with his legacy
Still debated
Debated is who started the strike and who got remembered, since popular memory credits Chavez over the Filipino workers. Chavez's early stance on undocumented labor and democracy inside the union are also argued.
← PreviousBread and Power: Wheat and the Politics of GrainNext →The Salad Bowl's Machine: Lettuce and the Law
