Benevolence towards foreginers
By the end of the strikes, Mexicans and Filipinos were viewed as an equal people. No longer were there government policies supporting xenophobia, and a majority of the country realized that these people were not inferior. Mexicans and Filipinos no longer viewed each other as enemies, but as allies with an unbreakable bond. Before the strikes, fights often broke out between the two groups, but now they were ready to take on the next challenge. Interracial marriage rates skyrocketed, and men who had gone 40 years unmarried finally could marry and have families. They were finally experiencing the American Dream.
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Gonzalez, Saul. “Cesar and Robert.” Robert Kennedy and California’s Farm Labor Movement, KCRW, 4 June 2018, https://www.kcrw.com/culture/articles/robert-kennedy-and-californias-farm-labor-movement.
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"“I have the ability to make that white man know I am just as mean as anybody in this world, could make him think, and I could make them recognize that I’m a mean son of a [expletive] in terms of my direction fighting for the rights of Filipinos in this country. Because I feel we are just as good as any of them. I feel we have the same rights as any of them. Because in that Constitution, it said that everybody has equal rights and justice. ."
~Larry Itliong, the man who started it all
~Larry Itliong, the man who started it all
Women's Rights
“Independent Lens.” Independent Lens, PBS, 27 Mar. 2018, http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/dolores-huerta/.
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Throughout the labor strikes, women played a huge role that ultimately allowed society to take a different approach of them. Dolores Huerta, the cofounder of the UFW, was a champion for women's rights. The amount of women in the labor force went up by 150%, which was the highest increase in the past century. The leadership displayed by women in this strike inspired many other females to start working and show America what they bring to the table other than taking care of the family.
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"We do need women in civic life. We do need women to run for office, to be in political office. We need a feminist to be at the table when decisions are being made so that the right decisions will be made.."
~Dolores Huerta, 2017 |
"[Huerta] often left her children for extended periods of time with her husband while she directed strikes and boycotts in California and New York...Huerta was described as having a "forceful style at the negotiating table, which overturned white male growers' racialized and gendered assumption."
~Lori Flores, present day journalist and advocate for feminism |