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October 24, 2006

Taking the long view

Immigration may be a subject of bitter political debate and public polarization today, but there's certainly nothing new about that. California has always had a paradoxical attitude toward the men and women, many of them from other countries, whose physical labor plays such an important role in the state's prosperity.

For the September package of stories about farm labor, I spent a lot of time digging into the historical record, believing I could better explore the issue in the context of 21st century agriculture if I understood how things had changed -- or not -- over time. As part of that research, I compiled the following a timeline of key events over the past 200-plus years that helped me visualize broad trends and served as useful background for the video I produced. I had intended the timeline to be published as part of the story package, but we ran out of space.

Immigrant Farm Labor in California
Historical Timeline

1769 Franciscan priests and Spanish soldiers recruit Indian converts living near missions on the Baja peninsula and bring them north from Mexico to work in California. The recruits help build missions at San Diego and Monterey, and labor in the settlement fields and orchards.

1833 Mexican republic orders mission lands in California to be sold or handed over to private owners.

1848 California becomes part of the United States, following the end of war with Mexico. Gold is discovered on the American River. In less than two years, California’s non-Indian population more than quadruples. Farming begins rapid expansion as population growth increases demand for food.

1852 State Sen. George Tingley of Santa Clara introduces bill to import Chinese agricultural workers, who would work under contract and be prohibited from obtaining citizenship. Bill fails, but Chinese immigrants begin arriving by the
thousands.

1870 Chinese immigrants account for about 15 percent of California's farm labor force. In Sacramento, San Mateo and Alameda counties, they account for between a quarter and half of all farm workers.

1877 Anti-Chinese protests and attacks on workers spread up and down California.

1882 Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, ending Chinese immigration for the next 70 years.

1891 Japanese immigrants arrive on the U.S. mainland for work primarily as agricultural laborers.

1894 A U.S. district court rules that Japanese immigrants cannot become citizens because they are not "a free white person" as the Naturalization Act of 1790 requires.

1903 Immigrant sugar beet workers in Oxnard form the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association and strike over low wages, the state's first organized farm labor action. Growers negotiate a settlement, raising wages for field work.

1905 The Asiatic Exclusion League is formed in San Francisco.

1907 Sikh laborers from northern India begin working on California farms.

1908 Japan and the United States agree to halt the immigration of Japanese laborers.

1909 About 30,000 Japanese work on California farms, 42 percent of the labor force.

1913 California passes first of several Alien Land Acts, prohibiting noncitizens from owning land.

1939 Factories in the Field by Carey McWilliams and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck are published, focusing national attention on the conditions of migrant farm workers.

1941 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, precipitating U.S. entry into World War II.

1942 President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 authorizing military authorities to exclude civilians from any area without trial or hearing. More than 110,000 West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry are forced into internment camps.
United States and Mexico authorize bracero program, which allows importation
of temporary contract workers for agriculture, to alleviate wartime labor shortage.

1943 Congress repeals Chinese Exclusion Act.

1948 U.S. Supreme Court rules California's Alien Land Act is unconstitutional.

1962 National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), organized by Cesar Chavez, holds its first convention.

1964 Bracero program ends, having brought 4.5 million Mexicans into the United States to work on farms.

1965 Mostly Filipino members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) strike against Central Valley grape growers, soon joined by largely Mexican members of NFWA. Unions call for consumer boycott of table grapes.

1966 United Farm Workers established by merger of AWOC and NFWA.

1970 Central Valley grape growers sign UFW contracts, ending strike and boycott.

1975 California passes the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the first law recognizing the rights of farmworkers to organize and bargain collectively.

1986 Congress passes Immigration Reform and Control Act, which grants amnesty to illegal immigrants who have resided in the United States since 1982, and imposes sanctions on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

1994 California voters pass Proposition 187, denying undocumented immigrants access to public schools, medical care, and other social services, and requiring public employees and law enforcement officials to report suspected undocumented immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Federal courts later strike down nearly all its provisions.

Sources: Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913 by Richard Steven Street; Harvest Empire: A History of California Agriculture by Lawrence J. Jelinek; "The California Farm Labor Force: Overview and Trends from the National Agricultural Workers Survey" by Aquirre Intertnational; Library of Congress; Migration Policy Institute; United Farm Workers

Posted by jkrist at 02:15 PM

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