Our Stories
The Journey By Richard Ybarra César Chávez’ Confidante and Son-in-Law
Joined the Strike In June 1970, my brother Albert and I joined other students in Coachella to support the striking grape workers. The minimum ask was for a week. My brother and I stayed for three months, driving home on most weekends. We worked as strike picketers, rising at 4 a.m., a quick egg and bean breakfast, and driving off by 5 a.m. to picket in 4 to 8 hour shifts, in temperatures above 100 degrees. There were also night shifts at packing houses. That’s where we would learn where the grapes were being shipped off. The strike labor camp provided a place to rest with modest meals offered by farmworkers. My brother and I crashed in our Dodge van. Eventually, we headed to Delano and became organizers for $5 a week, plus room and board, with meals at the Filipino Hall. This time we had more responsibilities. But the daily routine remained the same.
My late grandfather, Juan Escobedo Gonzalez, will always be my hero, much like the late civil rights leader, César Chávez. Both did extraordinary things in their lives. Born in Zacatecas, Mexico, my grandfather fought in the Mexican Revolution alongside Pancho Villa. With my grandmother, he immigrated to San Diego’s Lemon Grove in 1922. My grandfather became the principal organizer of Mexican families, who banded together and won a landmark case in 1931 against the Lemon Grove School district, one of the nation’s
first successful desegregation rulings. The Chicano Student Movement —Losing My Fear
Richard Ybarra (Photo Courtesy Richard Ybarra Family Archives)
My brother headed back to school in September. I stayed, believing people like me were making a difference. I knew I was aligned with my grandfather, as my own thoughts and understanding were evolving. The UFW won its first table grape contracts in 1970. Although, they were sometimes used as strikebreakers, César insisted that undocumented workers be allowed to enjoy the same protections
At San Diego State University in 1970, my life began to change when I joined the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) and became active in the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. The grape boycott caught my interest, as it cast a national spotlight on Filipino and Mexican farmworkers toiling long hours in the agricultural fields—with no toilets, no water, abysmal pay and harsh working conditions. Inspired by my grandfather, who organized farmworkers in the 1930s as a leader of Obreros y Campesinos, I lost the fear of standing up for others and became committed to social justice.
and rights as other farmworkers when California’s pioneering farm labor law was enacted in 1975.
Richard Chavez, First Union Grapes Coachella 1970 (Photo courtesy The Bob Fitch Photography Archive at Stanford)
Juan Escobedo Gonzalez (Photo Courtesy Richard Ybarra Family Archives)
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 4 – The Rise & Legacy of the Chicano Movement
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