This well-researched and important work is the first detailed study of Mexican citrus worker villages in Southern California, once home to more than one hundred thousand people. Centering on Orange County, the book addresses the formation and evolution of the state’s citrus industry and the villages it created. In successive chapters, Gilbert Gonzalez examines the history of the citrus industry in the region, community formation, village culture, schooling for children, Americanization of adults, the 1936 citrus picker strike, and the decline of the villages in the 1940s.
The modern citrus industry in Southern California took off in the late nineteenth century. It soon became the largest component of agriculture in the state and the largest industry in several counties. The Southern California Fruit Growers Exchange (later Sunkist) dominated production, growers, and labor relations. Around the time of World War I, the rapidly expanding industry turned to Mexican adult males to pick oranges and lemons year-round. It adopted a labor strategy based on acquiring a stable labor force by offering the incentive of easy home ownership for workers and their families.
The industry intruded on village institutional life directly and through public schools and Americanization programs. The Los Angeles-based Mexican consulate also sought to exert its influence on the villagers. Outside efforts were somewhat constrained by the historical spirit of Mexican rural village culture. Unlike barrios in the larger cities, the entire community participated in public events and could redirect outside efforts to mold individual lives and habits. The mass compulsory educational system for children sought to impose cultural homogeneity; but the public schools, like the villages themselves, were segregated and unequal. Educators almost universally agreed that Mexicans lacked ability, except in vocational subjects —a notion that belied democratic, egalitarian ideals. Americanization programs were based on theories that immigrants’ national cultures threatened to upset hierarchical industrial society and make them susceptible to class consciousness and radical political action. Villagers accepted the programs to receive medical and social services; meanwhile, they turned the community centers into public meeting places.
The 1936 citrus strike, the first large-scale strike in the industry, represented a turning point both for agricultural labor and for the villages. It further radicalized workers and brought down the wrath of growers. The third player, the Mexican consulate, intervened to channel radical worker discontent into politically acceptable and conservative demands under its own direction. In collaboration with the growers, the consulate gained control of the strike and outmaneuvered the radicals. In the long run, however, it lost the war, as Mexican workers turned to the AFL and CIO. With the coming of World War II, the industry hired Mexican braceros. It soon went into decline, and the villages were transformed into blue-collar, suburban barrios.
