Absent in farmworker historiographies are the voices of farmworker women who speak of patriarchal and racialized exploitation in post World War II California. For many, patriarchal power originated in domestic violence, strict gender roles and autonomy-denying social conditions. Using original oral interviews, this presentation foregrounds the patriarchal relations within the Mexican farmworker community, and traces its implications for the historiography on farmworker unionization in the 1960s and 1970s. More specifically, it argues for a direct confrontation with Mexican patriarchy so as to trace the racialized, gendered and classed power relations in California’s agricultural countryside. It further argues that only by engaging in this confrontation can we understand farmworker women’s experiences and recognize their political visions during the United Farm Worker Movement.

This brown-bag lunch event is free and open to the public.

Christian Paiz is Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. His research areas include: Comparative Latino Studies, United States History, Social Movement History, Historical Methods.