Table Of Content

The Strikers of Coachella Justice, Power, and Politics Coeditors Heather Ann Thompson Rhonda Y. Williams Editorial Advisory Board Peniel E. Joseph Daryl Maeda Barbara Ransby Vicki L. Ruiz Marc Stein The Justice, Power, and Politics series publishes new works in history that explore the myriad strug gles for justice, battles for power, and shifts in politics that have shaped the United States over time. Through the lenses of justice, power, and politics, the series seeks to broaden scholarly debates about Amer i ca’s past as well as to inform public discussions about its future. A complete list of books published in Justice, Power, and Politics is available at https:// uncpress . org / series / justice - power - politics. The Strikers of Coachella A Rank- and-F ile History of the UFW Movement christian o. paiz The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill This book was published with the assistance of the Authors Fund of the University of North Carolina Press. © 2023 Christian O. Paiz All rights reserved Set in Minion Pro by Westchester Publishing Services Manufactured in the United States of Amer i ca Complete Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data for this title is available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022043911. ISBN 9781469671697 (cloth) ISBN 9781469672144 (pbk) ISBN 9781469671703 (ebook) Cover illustration: Sand dunes from Walter C. Mendenhall, Ground Waters of the Indio Region, California, with a Sketch of the Colorado Desert (Washington, D.C.: Water Supply and Irrigation Papers of the Unites States Geological Survey, 1909), 28. Courtesy of the Internet Archive (identifier: watersupplyirrig224unit). How clever time works, overlapping people’s lives at certain stages, and as some eyes are waking up, others are already closing, securing the continuity of the world. — Rigoberto Gonzalez To my parents, and to my students Contents List of Illustrations, ix Introduction, 1 In a Small Place part i The Rancher Nation and Its Discontents Chapter 1 The Law of the Jungle, 25 Power and Society in the Coachella Valley, 1945–1965 Chapter 2 The Known World, 47 Fragments and Fissures in the Coachella Valley part ii To Make the World Anew Chapter 3 A Flash Flood in Red, 73 On the Farmworkers’ Many Movements, 1965–1970 Chapter 4 In a Field of Flowers, 102 The UFW Offensive against the Rancher Nation Chapter 5 Chicana/o Coachella and the Civic Retreat of the Rancher Nation, 127 part iii Politics in a Precarious Pre sent Chapter 6 Insurgent Frailties, 153 Errors, Setbacks, and Fissures, 1970–1973 Chapter 7 The B attle for Coachella, 1973–1974, 174 Chapter 8 Overlaid Tenses and Trajectories, 205 Movements In and Out of the Coachella Valley, 1974–1977 part iv Denials and Afterlives Chapter 9 Sparks at Dusk, 231 Elections and the (Denied) Promise of Utopian Futures, 1977–1983 Chapter 10 Here Is Where We Meet, 255 Acknowl edgments, 281 Appendix. Oral History Proj ect: United Farm Worker Movement in the Coachella Valley, 285 Notes, 291 Index, 389 Illustrations and Maps Illustrations “T he Strikers of Coachella,” 2 Editorial cartoon about how bosses suppress farmworkers, 14 “P ilgrims in Search of Justice,” 78 “M embers of the Historic Bagdasarian Sit- In,” 97 Richard Chavez, 99 The Farm Worker in the 1970s, 103 “F arm Worker W omen for Equality . . . What about Us,” 118 “T eamsters Have the Growers, We Have the People,” 192 Excerpt from Cesar Chavez’s speech, 199 “F or What Are We Fighting,” 268 The Manongs, 275 Maps Southern California, 13 Midcentury Coachella Valley, 13 Coachella Valley after 1970, 169