Click this link to view the video: Voices of the Farmworkers, 1975-2013
Video By Raquel Marquez
Voices of the Farmworkers, 1975-2013, a documentary dedicated to all the farm workers who harvested and continue to harvest the fields in the state of Texas.
On Jan 31, 2020, Texas Historical Commission installed a marker in Rio Grande City, Texas recognizing the untold history of the 1966 Starr County farm worker melon strike and march to Austin to raise worker wages and tell about the abuse suffered at the hands of Los Rinches, law enforcement, the growers, and the powers-that-be in that county. The strike by these unassuming workers was the spark that began the Chicano movement in Texas. In this photo from L to R are: Daria Vera, Sec-Trea of Local 2, St Rep Ryan Guillen, Arturo S. Rodriguez, 2d Pres of UFW, Rio Grande City Mayor Villarreal, and in the wheel chair, Librado de la Cruz, arrested 7 times during that strike by local law enforcement.
Via Rebecca Flores
Via Radio Bilingüe
PROGRAM # 7875 12:00 PM PT
“In 1966, fruit workers went on strike in the melon fields of Starr County, in Southern Texas, and, to dramatize their quest for a livable wage, the strikers marched 400 miles from Rio Grande City to the state Capitol in Austin. This labor strike and long march, supported by the UFW, is credited with helping galvanize the Chicano Movement. On the 50th anniversary of this epic event, veterans of the march share their memories.”
Link: http://radiobilingue.org/en/noticias/economia-y-trabajo/historica-marcha-a-austin-50-anos/
Via KUT Austin
Fifty years ago this month, a small group of farmworkers and their supporters arrived in Austin after marching nearly 500 miles from the Rio Grande Valley to Austin. That event 1966 has come to mean different things to different people, and a march on Sunday reflected on the half-century anniversary.
Link to listen and continue reading: http://kut.org/post/capitol-march-commemorates-50th-anniversary-historic-strike
Via the Texas Observer
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Austin Sunday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1966 farmworkers’ march from the Rio Grande Valley to the Capitol — an event that led to the first statewide minimum wage and effectively launched the farmworkers’ movement in Texas.
“It was the spark that initiated the Chicano movement here in the state of Texas,” said Rebecca Flores, former director of Texas United Farm Workers, “and I don’t want it forgotten.”
Read more here: https://www.texasobserver.org/la-marcha-remembered-austin/
“In the summer of 1966, 13-year-old Herminia Treviño Ramirez learned that her father was embarking on a journey that had the potential to change lives. He’d be joining other Texas agricultural laborers on a march from the Rio Grande Valley to Austin to demand better wages, her parents explained.
“I’m going, too!” Treviño Ramirez announced. “I’m going to do it for you, for us, and for my kids,” she said. Her words sounded like something her father often told them in Spanish — seeking justice, he’d say, was not only for them but for future generations.”
“En el verano de 1966, Herminia Treviño Ramírez se enteró de que su padre se involucraría en un viaje con el potencial de cambiar muchas vidas. Se reuniría con otros trabajadores agrícolas de Texas en una marcha desde el valle del Río Grande hasta Austin para exigir mejores salarios, le explicaron a ella sus padres.
“¡Yo también quiero ir!”, anunció Treviño Ramírez. “Lo voy a hacer por ustedes, por nosotros y por mis hijos”, dijo ella. Sus palabras sonaron como un dicho que su padre les decía a menudo. La búsqueda de la justicia, decía, no era sólo para ellos sino también para las generaciones futuras.”
LINK TO ARTICLE: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/marcharon-por-mejores-condiciones-para-trabajadore/nsSgf/
Marcha de los Campesinos
Río Grande City,Texas, 1966
© by Nephtalí De León
miren mi pueblo querido
lo que les voy a contar
comenzó en Río Grande City
en el condado de Starr
hace 40 y 10 años
sucedió algo muy extraño
cuando la gente del campo
dijo al Gringo —
ya no nos jodas tú tanto
pagaban en el melón
40 cobres por hora
a misery 40 cents
donde la vida del pobre
and their energy was spent
ahí no había coffee break
ni tampoco where to poop
si querías el escudao
nomás se veían las matas
que las hacíamos pa’ un lado
esto tiene que cambiar
decía Domingo Arredono
simón dijo el Balde Díaz
a los miembros del committee
no somos la piris wiris
con gente neta del pueblo
Rodrigo y Pedro García
se arrimó la Daría Vera
con la Kathy y Magdaleno
Librado y Alex Moreno
firmaron con sangre limpia
que viva La Raza mía !
aquí no nos hacen caso
vamos a píe al capitolio
a ver al gobernador
saquen sus chanclas más gruesas
las de cuero son mejor
arrestaron a unos cuantos
pero nadie se awitó
algunos aquí presentes
recuerdan mejor que yo
como el Efraín Carrera
que no andaba a las carreras…
yo también tuve en l’hotel
de la carcel de Río Grande
por andar de Nicky Snick
en el highway 83
keep it between you and me
en forma de Texas Rangers
les cayó chota gabacha
decía la Raza valiente
no importa que traigan bacha
tan babosos como el jelly
y se llaman Captain Allee
1/3 of the people arrested
eran mujeres valientes
que no se olvide esta historia
nuestras mujeres en gloria
marcadas en la memoria
dicho y hecho se nos van
desde Río Grande visitan
a la Virgen de San Juan
Medeiros el Portugues
gives them a great big mass
cuando llegan a Edcouch Elsa
les hacen un Barbeque
ya pasaron Weslaco
y les sigue Raymondville
y van a pasar por Linn
los periódicos los siguen
tanto humano en el camino
en la lluvia y en el sol
el Bene Treviño traiba
a sus dos hijas valientes
Graciela era la mas grande
13 años llevaba Herminia
Lupita Guzmán mas leve
apenas con 29
se les acaban las chanclas
y Falfurrias les regala
18 par de zapatos
y en kinisville, La Quineña
se dejan caer la greña
con los vaqueros de Tejas
Carlos Guerra reportero
escribe cosas bonitas
y en Robe, en el Robestown
los que piscan algodón
they throw their cotton sack down
y acompañan a la gente
del mero Río Grande town
sigue Corpitos, Normanna, Kennedy,
Beeville y Karnes city, with a big time
Raza rally — in downtown Floresville
where the governor is from
but he did’nt dare to come
the missions of San Antonio
give them such a juicy welcome
bajo el Arzobispo Lucy
but it’s raining cats and dogs
on Aug 27 que la falda de Daría
ran its beautiful bright green
her legs become neon green
craziest scene you´ve ever seen !
they give him tools of their trade
a canteloupe and some cotton
3,000 gather to march
from historic Milam Park
to the famous Alamó ,
this was 50 years ago,
where Methodist Joel Martinez
before an astounded nation
gives the holy invocation
they finally reach New Braunfels
where they´re met by tres amigos
who act like their enemigos
Attorney General Wagonner Carr
Speaker of the House Ben Barnes
y el mero Gobernador John Connally !
los tres pa’ decir que no!
Dijo Fernando Piñón
all those cheers turned into jeers
undaunted they kept their march
past New Braunfels, past San Marcos
y en la Uni de San Eduardo
en la mera capital
15 thousand people waited
to welcome the campesinos !
Cesar Chavez was presente
con toda la linda gente
también estaba Ann Richards
Ralph Yarborough senador
y la gente de calibre
luchando pa un pueblo libre
with 15,000 behind them
together the last 4 miles
they find the capital of Texas
for the first time in it´s life
with giant chains and a padlock
pos que creía el mandatario
que de Río Grande salieron
super hembra y superman
no los dejaron entrar
ni tampoco pos cambiar
40 centavos l´hora
por un salario cabal
aquí se acaba la historia
de valientes campesinos
humilde y tan pobre gente
pos cambiaron el destino
la gente empezó a luchar
por todo el estado de Texas
hubo huelgas, hubo marchas
hubo walkouts, hoteles organizados,
y hasta nacieron las boinas
los famosos Brown Berets
hubo un movimiento humano,
de los 40 centavos,
pedían uno y veinte y cinco
el puro mínimum wage
dejen decirles señores
dejen decirles señoras
que´l salario lo cambiaron
4 años después de este acto
a un dolar con cuarenta
despues de aquel digno día
hace medio siglo exacto
gracias a la valentía
del migrante campesino
que se oiga todos los días
que la viva la Raza mía !
email : nephtali3000@hotmail.com
website : — http://Nephtali.Net
BY JAMES C. HARRINGTON
Special to the Star-Telegram
Labor Day this year is different from those of years past.
This Labor Day marks the 50th anniversary of the historic 490-mile march by South Texas farm workers from Rio Grande City to the capitol in Austin.
The workers went on strike in the cantaloupe fields of Starr County — Texas’ version of plantations — demanding a minimum wage of $1.25/hour. They were only averaging $.40/hour — $.60/hour on a good day.
They began the march on July 4 and traveled throughout the Valley, to Kingsville, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and on to Austin, under the blistering summer sun and in torrents of rain.
People put cardboard in their shoes as the soles wore down.
As they marched, more and more people joined them.
Some walked all the way; some, only part.
But they wanted to honor and support these workers — mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers — whose backbreaking work put food on the tables of Texans, at a pittance.
People along the way gave the marchers food and drink. Cowboys from the King Ranch helped out with tacos.
The dignity of the farm laborers and the justice of their cause moved their supporters.
These were people marching for a better life for their kids and grandkids and for their community.
Their message was that the injustice and indignity they, their parents and grandparents had had long suffered had to stop.
Then-governor John Connally, on his way to do some white-wing dove hunting, met the marchers in New Braunfels.
He told them they should turn around and he would not “lend the dignity of his office” to a Capitol rally.
Nor would he support their demand for $1.25/hour.
He drove off, and the workers kept marching.
They spent their last night at St. Edward’s University.
On Sept. 5, 1966, Labor Day, joined by 15,000 supporters from around Texas, they marched onward to the Capitol.
They did not win the $1.25/hour in 1966, but they did three years later.
It was not an easy struggle. Nor was the march their hardest test.
After returning home, they had to endure horrific brutality from the Texas Rangers in 1966 and 1967.
The Rangers, led by the notorious Captain A.Y. Allee, crushed the strike.
The farm laborers filed a civil rights case; and, in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a scathing denunciation of the Rangers, Allee v. Medrano.
The 1966 March was the beginning of the Hispanic movement in Texas.
It galvanized Mexican Americans and their supporters.
The time had come to end the state’s sordid and violent century-long history of oppression.
The march was to the Hispanic community in Texas what Rosa Parks was to African Americans.
This year on Sunday, Sept. 11, there will be a commemorative march, again from St. Edward’s to the Capitol.
Some of the surviving 1966 marchers will be present.
Farm workers still have much to march for: better wages and working conditions.
That will be a goal of this year’s march, to be sure.
But it will also be an opportunity for us to honor the dignity and struggle of those courageous Starr County workers who made all our lives better when they set out for Austin in 1966.
This year’s march is our pledge to continue that struggle.
James C. Harrington, a human rights lawyer, is founder and director emeritus of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Via the Express News
“Fifty years ago, Texas farmworkers demanding a minimum wage went on strike. Their subsequent march — along with supporters — from Rio Grande City to Austin to press these demands didn’t get that result.
They made history anyway.
They put Texas and the nation on notice that farmworkers — those who harvested what we ate — were due civil rights as well. A living wage is such a right.
This was 1966, two years after the Civil Rights Act. In a recent comment in this newspaper, Ed Sills of the AFL-CIO told the story of the march.
At the time, melon workers were paid 40 cents an hour for backbreaking work. No more, they said. They marched 490 miles to Austin, met on the way by then-Gov. John Connally, who told the marchers that he wouldn’t dignify their demands with a meeting in the Capitol.
Meanwhile, Texas Rangers and other Starr County law enforcement cracked down on the strikers, often brutally. Magdaleno Dimas suffered such a beating that his spine was curved out of shape and he suffered a concussion. This sparked the corrido “Los Rinches de Tejas.”
A U.S. district judge, ruling that Texas violated strikers’ rights, wrote, “It is difficult indeed for this Court to visualize two grown men colliding with each other so as to cause such injuries.” Di-mas and another man were severely beaten, and the Rangers said this was how their injuries occurred.
And here’s where history was made. In Allee vs. Medrano, the courts ended the use of public law enforcement as strikebreakers, what Texas did in effect. But the bigger trend was arguably the birth of the movement for Mexican-Americans rights generally in Texas and elsewhere.
On Monday, there will be a commemoration of the strike and the march, at 10 a.m. at Milam Park, 501 W. Commerce St.
It’s an event worth remembering.”
United Farm Workers 2016 | Texas 