PHOTO: Carlos Marentes
In 1966, the United Farmworkers Union (UFWU) sent organizers to Texas to gather support for the UFWU grape strikes in California. One of these organizers was Antonio Orendain. But on July 1st, 1966 farmworkers picking melons went on strike demanding a $1.25 minimum hourly rate. These strikers were against the Casita Farms and other sheds around the Rio Grande City area. This year marks the 50th anniversary of this strike.
To discredit their strike growers accused the farmworkers of vandalizing equipment, produce, private and public property. The local government, made up mainly of white growers, called in the notorious Texas Rangers. What ensued was a wave of hostility and violence.
The farmworkers — made up of women and men and their children — openly challenged the Texas Rangers and the growers by continuing their strike. Determined to win, the farmworkers organized a march to Austin on July 4th, 1966. This was in an effort to publicize their conditions and to get the then Governor John Connally to concede to their demands: $1.25 an hour and better working conditions.
Gov. Connally, Ben Barnes the House Speaker and Attorney General Waggoner met the marchers in New Braunfels, Texas. They discouraged the marchers from continuing their efforts and demanded they stop the march. But, in spite of their warning, the farmworkers continued and arrived in Austin on Labor Day.
The Casita Strike and the march to Austin were signs of what was to come in future years. The conditions were ripe for organizing, a direct outcome of the farmers’ and local authorities’ continued oppression.
On August of 1975, nine years after the Casita Strike, a group of farmworkers broke from the UFW and formed their own independent union under the leadership of Antonio Orendain: the Texas Farmworkers Union.
In February of 1977, another march was organized from San Juan, Texas to Austin. The purpose was to gather support for a state Agricultural Relations Act. This Act would give farmworkers the right to bargain collectively with their employers. This bill did not have much support from the Mexican-American caucus, so it never made it out of committee.
In June 1977, the TFWU decided to march to Washington, D.C. to shed national light on the deplorable working conditions they faced in Texas. The farmworkers marched 1,600 miles through the Southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. The marchers were met as heroes due to their determination. The farmworkers and their supporters arrived at the capital on Labor Day. Their goal was to meet President Jimmy Carter, but he refused.
They returned to the Rio Grande Valley and continued their strikes, winning some victories. The TFWU forced the onion industry to pay workers $1.00 per gunny sack. Strikes were organized in the west Texas town of Hereford, Texas. The biggest strike was the Willacy County (Raymondville) strike against a powerful local grower — the Wetagrove. The whole town was paralyzed by the strike. Wetagrove onions were not getting to the market. Wetagrove was almost at the point of signing an agreement with the union when Otho Brand came to the rescue.
Otho Brand bought all of their onions and brought in strikebreakers and the full force of the state police in a major effort to break the strike. Though their efforts succeeded, Willacy County has never been the same again.
With the 1966 Rio Gande City melon strike against Casita Farms, and other strikes to follow, the farmworkers quickly learned that the local police and in particular the Texas Rangers were there not to maintain the peace and order but to protect and serve the interest of the growers. Engraved in the workers’ consciousness of the Valley, even today, is the knowledge of whose interests the local politicians and law enforcement represents. They serve and represent the rich growers (private property) and not the people.
