In Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus, the difficult life of the main characters takes place against the greater backdrop of the struggle among migrant farmworkers for legal protections, safe working conditions, and fair pay. As I read the book, I was reminded of details from a history class I took last spring that explored the awakening of political awareness among different ethnic groups during the civil rights era.

Although people of Hispanic descent have been present in the American Southwest since before California became a state, the arrival of large numbers of Mexican immigrants began in the early years of the Second World War, when the Bracero program was hatched. Conceived as a guest worker program during a period of growing agricultural demand, the idea was to bring in farm laborers during the harvest season who would then return to their native land in the off season. While it was in effect, the Bracero program was interrupted at regular intervals by deportation actions such as “Operation Wetback” in 1954. Nonetheless, by the time this legal framework ended in 1964, over 4.5 million guestworkers had entered the country at one point or another.

These workers faced public discrimination, threats from employers, and poor working conditions that often lacked access to adequate drinking water during the hot summer months. Early efforts to organize farm workers to press for rights failed in the face of numerous barriers. For one, the migratory nature of farmhands and their families meant that group communication was difficult to maintain from month to month and year to year. The large number of employers diluted workers’ demands, and a labor surplus meant that many immigrants were wary of losing their jobs by becoming too activist. In addition, the Wagner Act, a federal law passed during the Great Depression that protected the rights of workers to unionize, specifically excluded domestic and farm workers due to their ranks being dominated mostly by minorities.

Yet progress came slowly. Most notable was the United Farmer Worker’s (UFW) successful grape boycott that lasted from 1965 to 1969, a period of more than five years. It targeted table grape growers with the demand of raising wages equal to the federal minimum wage. Unlike early efforts at collective action, part of the outcome could be attributed to the fact that the organizers, led by Cesar Chavez, captured the attention of the national media and were able to get the support of many ordinary, white Americans. Other unions such as the Longshoremen’s Union, cooperated in refusing to load non-union grapes. With consumers refusing to buy their product and tons of fruit rotting on the docks, the major grape growers finally had no choice but to cave in, resulting in union formation among the workers and the immediate raising of wages.