Documenting the March to Sacramento

Metadata and detective work

This month, Marta Valier provides an inside look at how the Bradley Center’s metadata team is working towards identifying as many people and places of the 1966 march from Delano to Sacramento. We also thank you for your support of Marta’s graphic novel project with illustrator Sara Scalia to create a graphic non-fiction novel using photographs by Richard Cross. Also, we thank you for making so successful our event with Chicano playwright and filmmaker Luis Valdez last March 15.

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Spotlight on the Farmworker Movement Collection

by Marta Valier

The Bradley Center continues to work on John Kouns’ photographs from the Farmworker Movement Collection, specifically the photos of the march to Sacramento in 1966. They provide an exceptional visual account of the pilgrimage. Unlike simply accompanying the farm workers for a portion of their journey, Kouns marched for the entire journey from Delano to Sacramento with them. Unfortunately, these images weren’t arranged in chronological order and we have limited information about their locations. The challenge is then to scrutinize every photo and try to identify anything we can, people, cities, and towns. So far, Brandon Lien and I have been able to identify photographs made in Richgrove, Ducor, Porterville, Visalia, Del Rey, Fresno, Chowchilla, and Stockton. And of course, Delano and Sacramento. Following are photos of the first day of the march, the day after U.S. Senators Harrison Williams Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, and George Murphy held a hearing in Delano, which provided a platform for César Chávez and the National Farmworkers Association to denounce the growers and gain national exposure for their cause.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy and César Chávez met outside the Delano High School Auditorium, where the U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearings on Migratory Labor were scheduled for that day, March 16. Speakers included Senators Kennedy and Harrison Williams Jr., NFWA organizers Dolores Huerta, Carolina Franco, and Tony Mendez. The young boy sitting next to Kennedy is Virgilio Cabanas. Two other children, Tina Guzman and Eugene "Gene" Dahlig are in the background. Photos by John Kouns/Tom and Ethel Bradley Center.

Right after the hearings, Chávez declared a march and pilgrimage to Sacramento.

L-R: AWOC member Manuel Vásquez, NFWA members Luis Valenzuela, Freddie Armenta, Jorge Zaragoza, Roberto Román, César Chávez, and Jim Drake from the California Migrant Ministry walk in front of the NFWA headquarters on 102 Albany Street, kicking off the pilgrimage to the state capitol. NFWA members Marshall Ganz and Peggy McGivern are also visible. McGivern, the nurse that will take care of the medical needs of the marchers during the pilgrimage, is outside the NFWA building and Ganz is walking the opposite way of the marchers on the extreme right of the image. Photo by John Kouns © Tom and Ethel Bradley Center

NFWA members Luis Valenzuela, Jorge Zaragoza, Roberto Román, Beto Reyes, and Jim Drake from the California Migrant Ministry walk on the first day of the pilgrimage to Sacramento. Sam Kushner, a reporter who covered the NFWA for the Communist Party's People's World, is following the marchers walking on their side holding a notebook in his hands. Photo by John Kouns © Tom and Ethel Bradley Center

The following day, on March 17, sixty-seven picketers, organizers, and supporters—including photographers Kouns and Jon Lewis—started a farmworker march from Delano to Sacramento to bring public awareness of the grape strike and boycott, and to pressure Governor Pat Brown to urge growers to the bargaining table. These 67 original marchers (los originales) would cross more than 50 towns and cities in California’s Central Valley while hundreds, and in some places, thousands, of people joined the march. The headquarters of the National Farm Workers Association, at 102 Albany Street, was chosen as the starting point, where more than 200 people, including the original 67, started the pilgrimage north.

Delano police officers form a line across the road at the intersection between Garces Highway and Albany Street preventing farm workers and their supporters to continue their march out of town. NFWA members Luis Valenzuela, Freddie Armenta, Octavio Hernandez, and Roberto Román are visible in the background. Manuel Vásquez, an AWOC member that joined the march as a captain, is also present. Photo by John Kouns © Tom and Ethel Bradley Center

AWOC members Manuel Vásquez, and Larry Itliong, and NFWA members Luis Valenzuela, Freddie Armenta, and Roberto Román are waiting for the Delano police officers to move out of the way. Photo by John Kouns © Tom and Ethel Bradley Center

NFWA member Luis Valenzuela kneels in front of Delano police in a sign of protest as the officers are blocking the way to the farm workers’ pilgrimage to Sacramento. Photo by John Kouns © Tom and Ethel Bradley Center

At the intersection of Albany and Garces Highway, however, two dozen police officers blocked the road arguing that the marchers needed a permit. Reporters from the national press who were in Delano the previous day for the hearings by the U.S. Subcommittee on Migratory Labor, headed by Senator Robert Kennedy, registered the standoff. A phone call from Senator Kennedy to the Delano police chief finally ended the impasse, according to Roberto “El Capitán” Bustos, a farmworker and striker who led the marchers for almost their entire journey to Sacramento. After walking for 17 miles, around 70 marchers arrived at Ducor, where they listened to Luis Valdez reading the Plan of Delano before going to bed.

Farm workers marching to Sacramento. Photo by John Kouns © Tom and Ethel Bradley Center

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Thank you for supporting Ma Ngombe.

Photo by Richard Cross/Tom and Ethel Bradley Center

Thanks for your support towards the creation of the graphic/photographic novel Ma Ngombe. Your contribution plays a significant role in making this project a reality. We are looking forward to sharing Richard Cross's story and his photographs of San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, with readers around the world. We were able to raise $6,500 for the book. We’ll keep you updated on its progress. To learn more about Richard Cross and his collection at the Bradley Center, click here.

Thank you for coming to our event with Luis Valdez

Last March 15, acclaimed Chicano playwright and filmmaker, Luis Valdez came to CSUN to discuss his career and his new book, Theatre of the Sphere: The Vibrant Being. Dr. Jorge Huerta accompanied Luis in an event moderated by Carmen Ramos Chandler. Students, professors, members of the community, and friends and family of the Bradley Center had a chance to talk to Luis Valdez, whose energy was felt among the almost 400 people who attended this event. We thank all of those who came, and we hope we had a chance to seeing you again soon. Photos by Nathan McMackin and Joseph Silva. Tom and Ethel Bradley Center.

Members of the Bradley Center’s team at the Biltmore Hotel in front of a painting by Carlos Almaraz during the fundraising banquet celebrating the legacy of César Chávez. L-R: Brandon Lien, Joseph Silva, Marta Valier, José Luis Benavides, and Keith Rice. We thank Andrés Chávez for the invitation to this event.