Cannery women, cannery lives : Mexican women, unionization, and the California food processing industry, 1930-1950 / Vicki L. Ruiz.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-188) and index.

1. Community and family -- 2. The cannery culture -- 3. UCAPAWA and California -- 4. A promise fulfilled: UCAPAWA in Southern California -- 5. Women and UCAWAPA -- 6. Death of a dream

"Women have been the mainstay of the grueling, seasonal canning industry for over a century. This book is their collective biography - a history of their family and work lives, and their union. Out of the labor militancy of the 1930s emerged the united Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA). Quickly it became the seventh largest CIO affiliate and one of the few real success stories of women in unions. But by 1951 it lay in ruins - a victim of red-baiting in the McCarthy era and of brutal takeover tactics by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Thousands of Mexicana and Mexican American women working in canneries in southern California established effective, democratic trade union locals run by local members. These rank-and-file activists skillfully managed union affairs, including negotiating such benefits as maternity leave, company-provided day care, and paid vacations - in some cases better benefits than they enjoy today. The dramatic and turbulent history of UCAPAWA is a major contribution to the new labor history in its carefully documented account of minority women controlling their union and regulating their working lives. Vick L. Ruiz, an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Davis, specializes in Mexican American and women's history." -- from the back cover

One of the women featured prominently in this book is Luisa Moreno (who appears in photographs on pages 66 and 67). The following is a from a biographical sketch of the author written by Valerie J. Matsumoto, University of California, Los Angeles, from the Presidential Address booklet, 2016 AHA Annual Meeting. [Vicki Ruiz had been elected president of the American Historical Association in 2015]: "Meeting a renowned labor leader and civil rights activist would set Vicki on the course of her research path: Between her first and second years, she went to Guadalajara, Mexico, to interview Luisa Moreno/Rosa Rodríguez de Bemis (1907–92). In the 1930s and 40s Moreno had attained prominence organizing New York seamstresses, Florida cigar rollers, and California cannery workers; she became vice president of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), as well as playing a primary role in organizing El Congreso del Pueblo de Habla Española, the first national Latino civil rights conference held in the United States. Red baiting forced her to leave the United States for Mexico during the Cold War. Although Moreno rarely spoke with strangers, Al’s introduction paved the way for Vicki to get to know her; hearing firsthand about Moreno’s experiences deepened her awe. Vicki recalled, “On the last day of my stay I blurted out, ’I know what I’m going to do for my dissertation. I’m going to write about you.’ She shook her head and said, ’No, no. You’re going to write about the cannery workers in Southern California. You’re going to find those women. I’ll help.’ And that’s how my life work in Chicana history began. With Luisa Moreno introducing her to union organizers, Vicki began to search for the rank-and-file members whose experiences would form the basis for Cannery Women, Cannery Lives. The UCAPAWA organizers in the San Francisco Bay area welcomed Vicki; although Cold War persecution had made them leery of tape recorders, they allowed her to interview them if she took handwritten notes. With serendipitous timing, she met Edward Escobar, the new assistant dean of graduate studies at Stanford, and discovered that his mother Carmen Bernal Escobar had been a strike leader. Drawing on newspapers and union records as well as oral history, Vicki wove together a rich collective biography of the cannery workers who, from 1939 to 1950, formed flourishing democratic union locals in southern California, securing maternity leave and daycare benefits, until beset by cannery closures and McCarthy-era persecution." from https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/presidential-addresses/vicki-l-ruiz/vicki-l-ruiz-biography

Gift of Karen Wald.