The Strikers of Coachella - (Justice, Power, and Politics) by Christian O Paiz (Paperback)

About the Book

"The past decades have borne witness to the United Farm Workers' (UFW) tenacious hold on the country's imagination. Since 2008, the UFW has lent its rallying cry to a presidential campaign and been the subject of no less than nine books, two documentaries, and one motion picture. Yet the full story of the women, men, and children who powered this social movement has not yet been told. Based on more than 250 hours of original oral history interviews conducted with Coachella Valley residents who participated in the UFW and Chicano Movement, Filipino farm workers, bracero workers, and UFW volunteers throughout the United States, this stirring history spans from the 1960s and 1970s through the union's decline in the early 1980s"--

Book Synopsis

The past decades have borne witness to the United Farm Workers' (UFW) tenacious hold on the country's imagination. Since 2008, the UFW has lent its rallying cry to a presidential campaign and been the subject of no less than nine books, two documentaries, and one motion picture. Yet the full story of the women, men, and children who powered this social movement has not yet been told.

Based on more than 200 hours of original oral history interviews conducted with Coachella Valley residents who participated in the UFW and Chicana/o movements, as well as previously unused oral history collections of Filipino farm workers, bracero workers, and UFW volunteers throughout the United States, this stirring history spans from the 1960s and 1970s through the union's decline in the early 1980s. Christian O. Paiz refocuses attention on the struggle inherent in organizing a particularly vulnerable labor force, especially during a period that saw the hollowing out of virtually all of the country's most powerful labor unions. He emphasizes that telling this history requires us to wrestle with the radical contingency of rank-and-file agency--an agency that often overflowed the boundaries of individual intentions. By drawing on the voices of ordinary farmworkers and volunteers, Paiz reveals that the sometimes heroic, sometimes tragic story of the UFW movement is less about individual leaders and more the result of a collision between the larger anti-union currents of the era and the aspirations of the rank-and-file.

Review Quotes

"The Strikers of Coachella provides a deeply informed and nuanced account of the struggles of different groups of farmworkers in their interactions within and against each other in countering the power of ranchers and state organs as they sought to improve their employment rights and sense of dignity. . . . It constitutes a premier example of grassroots-based research with its focus on the actions of rank-and-file members of the UFW. It is a major contribution to industrial relations and union scholarship."--British Journal of Industrial Relations

"A powerful work, instructive for any reader interested in labor history, rural history, or the history of social movements and easily assignable in part for undergraduates."--Southwestern Historical Quarterly

"A welcome intervention [that] offers some guidance as to how we will narrate this history. . . . Among its many strengths, The Strikers of Coachella offers impressive and comprehensive footnotes that reveal the variety of evidence Paiz utilizes across the book's ten chapters. The beautiful prose offers thoughtful language for describing the significance of ordinary people's freedom dreams manifested by their joining the movement. Their voices are clear and present throughout the book."--Aztlán

"An empathetic, well-researched, and highly readable study . . . [A] must-read for scholars of labor, activism, and farmworker histories."-H-Environment

"Focused on California's Coachella Valley, Christian O. Paiz offers us a remarkable analysis of the UFW movement that centers the union's grassroots and eschews unnecessary binaries of union victory or defeat. The work is a welcome change from the recent emphasis on the UFW's failed leadership."--North American Congress on Latin America

"Paiz does a masterful job weaving the UFW's history with workers' experiences. . . . A nuanced and incredibly well-researched volume."--Power at Work

"Paiz goes beyond the familiar names of Chavez and Huerta to challenge how scholars and the general public approach the United Farm Workers as a historical subject. . . . By focusing on these workers, Strikers of Coachella not only tells the story of the UFW from below; the book also argues that the contributions of these rank-and-file members drove the success of the union."--The Nation

"Paiz skillfully analyzes class, ethnicity, and gender tensions in both movements. He fearlessly dives into the conflicts within the social movement and disrupts the narrative that movements are a linear process."--Perspectives

"The value of this book is that it gives voice to those workers often minimalized in our more recent narratives. . . . The author is to be commended for this contribution to the field."--Journal of Arizona History

"This book's strength is its emphasis on the workers, not the leadership. Paiz grew up in this world . . . [and] does a masterful job weaving the UFW's history with workers' experience. . . . The Strikers of Coachella is a nuanced and incredibly well researched volume . . . not only a testament to the farmworkers' spirited resistance but a thoughtful study of the human condition and the extra effort and inspiration that lies behind any struggle where workers find their voice and power."--Labor Culture