This article argues that children were central to the United Farm Workers’ (UFW) social justice appeal in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As marginalized laborers and a vulnerable group in need of protection, child farmworkers were emblematic of the movement’s aspirations. As agents of protest and activism, both farmworker and non-farmworker children were key to its advancement. Additionally, the article highlights the many ways that the UFW shaped children’s politics, fostered their identity, and contributed to student-led civil rights efforts in rural California. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, including oral histories and children’s correspondence with Cesar Chavez, this article details children’s unprecedented level of labor rights activism in the UFW movement's first decade.
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Spring 2023
Research Article|
May 01 2023
Niños por la causa: Child Activists and the United Farm Workers Movement, 1965–1975
Jennifer Robin Terry
Jennifer Robin Terry
Jennifer Robin Terry is president of the Western Association of Women Historians. She holds a PhD in American history from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Pacific Historical Review (2023) 92 (2): 227–259.
Citation
Jennifer Robin Terry; Niños por la causa: Child Activists and the United Farm Workers Movement, 1965–1975. Pacific Historical Review 1 May 2023; 92 (2): 227–259. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2023.92.2.227
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