Farm Workers and the Churches: The Movement in California and Texas

Chapter 6. The Church and the Farm Worker Movement in South Texas, 1966-69

Chapter 6: The Church and the Farm Worker Movement in South Texas, 1966–69 . . . we may well be witnessing in the Valley the beginning of a sweeping social movement larger than growers or unions, fraught with peril and promise. Maybe it is not too late for the Church to be a part of it, struggling not to avoid its conflict, but to make it creative rather than destructive. Jorge Lara-Braud, Director of the Hispanic-American Institute, Austin, Texas, 1967 As in California, the lives of some Mexican Americans in Texas improved in the 1940s and 1950s. A number of them found work at the state’s military bases and in manufacturing. Although often employed in unskilled jobs, they at least escaped dependence on part-time and exploitative farm labor. On the political front, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the American G.I. Forum, and other traditional organizations continued to chip away at the state’s Jim Crow laws. Sometimes they objected to harsh treatment of Mexican immigrants, as in Operation Wetback in 1954. In the presidential election year of 1960, progressive Anglo politicians recognized and courted the Mexican American vote. Several years later Latino candidates themselves made headway in some of the state’s metropolitan centers. An emerging Chicana/o group even overturned the power structure in Crystal City, a town in the Winter Garden District. Chicanas/os such as José Angel Gutiérrez soon founded the Mexican American Youth Organization and the La Raza Unida Party, contributing to the abolishment of racial discrimination in public schools. Yet these gains failed to strike a deathblow to persistent racism or the cold war mentality held by many Anglo Texans that most social movements and unions were communist inspired. One expression of this newfound activism was a wildcat strike called by cantaloupe pickers in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. In contrast to 138 Chapter 6 California, they faced even greater obstacles. Although beginning on 1 June 1966 and surviving until the fall of 1967, the strike, which was held mostly in Starr County, faced seemingly insurmountable hurdles. It suffered from grossly inadequate organization, the easy availability of day workers from Mexico, the state’s anti-labor laws, a fairly weak coalition of urban liberals, and the strikebreaking measures of the Texas Rangers. In short, the overall conservatism of the Lone Star State boded ill for the cantaloupe workers. The strike often mirrored earlier attempts by field laborers. In at least two respects, however, it also resembled events among farm workers in Delano. First, the Starr County strike enjoyed widespread publicity, especially during La Marcha, a four-hundred-mile trek from Rio Grande City to the state capitol in Austin, Texas. Second, the strike, or La Huelga, received substantial support from some of the state’s religious groups. Catholic priests in San Antonio and Houston became deeply involved, as well as Protestant clergy, particularly those affiliated with the Texas Council of Churches. These clerics led marches and preached at outdoor gatherings. They also solicited financial contributions and helped to organize food caravans for the strikers and their families. The Council even sued the Texas Rangers for obstructing legitimate religious activity. In the end, though, this support failed to tip the balance in favor of the strike. Both Catholic and Protestant officials gradually withdrew their partisan support, seeking to extricate themselves from the “lost cause” of the farm workers. New-breed ministers who refused to be brought to heel were eventually disciplined or terminated from their positions. In protest, Mexican American laity picketed the residence of the Catholic archbishop and, later, the constituting convention of the Texas Conference of Churches, the successor body to the Council. By 1968 the union drastically scaled back operations. Its leaders turned mostly to traditional programs, such as establishing a credit union and a legal-aid office. Breathing a collective sigh of relief, Catholic and Protestant leaders then cosponsored a parallel organization whose noncontroversial approach reflected the overall religious and social climate of the state. The Beginning of the Starr County Strike of 1966–67 In the 1960s, civic boosters in Texas’s four southernmost counties often promoted their home as the Magic Valley. Several factors had helped to The Church and the Farm Worker Movement in South Texas 139 transform this ranch country into an agricultural wonderland, including crop experimentation, irrigation, transportation improvements, and, not...