In 1974, my brother was in love with a young woman who was volunteering at the headquarters of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) in La Paz, a small enclave in the Tehachapi Mountains southeast of Bakersfield. I followed one weekend, and for a year or so, I rarely returned to art school in San Francisco.
I photographed up and down the valleys of California the young men living in labor camps, in chicken coops and under the sky. The children and adults working together in the fields, and the UFW organizers and volunteers listening and talking with farm workers about how elections in the fields, the right of farmworkers to vote for a union of their choice, might change their lives. UFW organizers Celestino Rivas, Ricardo Villapando, Rosa Saucedo, and Chuy Solano often included me in their daily rounds, from the fields and camps to Maria’s kitchen table. The UFW field offices were a hub of activity, of nightly meetings, and frequent visits from the union president, Cesar Chavez. On June 5, 1975, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (CALRA) became law. In July and August of 1975, a 1,000 mile march through the Central Valley helped to bring attention to the landmark statute recognizing the right of farmworkers to vote for union representation. I was 20 and 21 years old, and I knew it was an enormous privilege to have been able to make these pictures.