This is the face of a migrant worker'

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This is the face of a migrant worker.
                                                
                                                  
                                                  
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8-year old mother from Oklahoma now a California
migrant. (Circa March 1937
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Makeshift housing of a migrant working family.
                                                
                                                  
                                                  
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igrant family looking for work in the pea fields
of California. (Circa 1935)
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The Depression effected everyone
                                                
                                                  
                                                  
                                   Farm Security
Administration migrants. (Circa 1935)

• California was definitely not the promised land
  of the migrants' dreams. Although the weather was
  comparatively balmy and farmers' fields were
  bountiful with produce, Californians also felt
  the effects of the Depression.

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•  

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Mexican immigrants in Texas in 1938. Very often
men traveled from Mexico first to find work and
then sent for families.
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A hope for a better life

• Why did so many of the refugees pin their hopes
  for a better life on California? One reason was
  that the state's mild climate allowed for a long
  growing season and a diversity of crops with
  staggered planting and harvesting cycles. For
  people whose lives had revolved around farming,
  this seemed like an ideal place to look for work.
  Popular songs and stories, circulating in oral
  tradition for decades.

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These laborers prepare to disembark one farm to
work in another.
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Illegal immigration
Local and state governments were already
overburdened, and the steady stream of newly
arriving migrants was more than the system could
bear. After struggling to make it to California,
many found themselves turned away at its borders.
Those who did cross over into California found
that the number of job openings was far too small
for the number of incoming available labor
workers.
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When they were not working

• When they were not working or looking for work,
  or tending to the civil and domestic operations
  of the camp, the migrants found time to engage in
  recreational activities. Singing and making music
  took place both in private living quarters and in
  public spaces. The music performed by the
  migrants came from a number of different sources.

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Migrants who found employment soon learned that
this overabundance of workers caused a
significant reduction in the going wage rate.
Even with an entire family working, migrants
could not support themselves on these low wages.
Many set up camps along irrigation ditches in the
farmers' fields. These "ditchbank" camps fostered
poor sanitary conditions and created a public
health problem
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Barracks set up for migrant laborers
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Living conditionsfor migrant workers were..

• As you can see from this image, living conditions
  included use of stagnant water and therefore
  filthy cooking and dwelling spaces. They were
  left to live in squalor.

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Wait your turn!

• Sometimes hundreds of workers were left to share
  one outhouse. This meant they also shared
  sickness and disease.

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Arrival in California did not put an end
to the migrants' travels. Their lives were
characterized by transience. In an attempt to
maintain a steady income, workers had to follow
the harvest around the state. When potatoes were
ready to be reaped, the migrants needed to be
where the potatoes were. The same principle
applied to harvesting cotton, lemons, oranges,
peas, and other crops.
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Okies

•     As the "double whammy" of drought and
  depression deepened on the Great Plains, more and
  more farmers gave up or were forced off of their
  land. In addition, the relentless march of new
  tractors meant that the farmers who were able to
  scrape together enough money to buy a tractor
  could buy out their neighbors. Fewer farmers
  could farm more land. But where would those who
  left go?
• Some went to cities. But many decided to head
  west. In fact, during the 30s hundreds of
  thousands left the plains for the West Coast. So
  many migrated from Oklahoma that they were dubbed
  "Okies" in the popular press. For years,
  California, Oregon and Washington had been
  growing. Many who were pushed off of the plains
  were pulled west because they had relatives who
  had moved to the coastal areas. And the boosters
  of California had advertised that the state
  offered a perfect climate and an abundance of
  work in the agricultural industry

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A Strike for Rights!

• Better wages and better living conditions!
• Conflict between Okies and immigrant workers
  existed over competition for work.
• These signs show a strike slogan, or saying.

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Mexican-American Migrant Worker on Strike

• Mexican-American Migrant Worker on Strike Here
  is a Mexican-American migrant worker on strike as
  part of an action by the United Farm Workers of
  America. Supervisors were tough on laborers,
  sometimes requiring them to work 18 hour days for
  pay too inadequate to survive and no medical
  care.

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Cesar Chavez

• "Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) Here is Cesar Chavez,
  an American labor organizer who founded the
  National Farm Workers Association in 1962. Chavez
  used strikes, fasts, picketing, and marches to
  obtain contracts from a number of major growers.

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Resources

• http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html
• http//www.picturehistory.com/product/id/http//ww
  w.picturehistory.com/product/id/13018
• http//education.lakotatechnology.com/MIGRANT-WORK
  ER-GREAT-DEPRESSION.html
• http//livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water
  _06.html