SAN ANTONIO – Fifty years ago, on September 5, 1966, an estimated 10,000 farmworkers and their supporters marched up the steps of the state Capitol demanding a minimum wage of $1.25 an hour and decent working conditions in the fields.
Among them was Guadalupe Guzman, who was 29, and her 5-year-old son.
“They were paying 40 cents an hour for the cantaloupes,” Guzman said. “We were so poor that we organized that meeting.”
The meeting in Starr County led to what many called a courageous act driven by poverty.
The farmworkers decided to not only go on strike, but also to stage a 400-mile march from South Texas to Austin.
“I had tennis (shoes). The tennis (shoes) were all torn up,” Guzman said.
Now approaching her 80th birthday, Guzman said she’s proud to have taken part in a march that would prove historic.
Marchers like Guzman said they encountered both hostility and hospitality along the way, but not even then Gov. John Connally and other state leaders outside New Braunfels could stop them from reaching Austin.
It’s estimated the marchers grew to 10,000 people surrounding the state Capitol. Cesar Chavez joined them on his way to becoming a labor icon, leading a national grape boycott against California growers.
Reporter Phil Oakley asked Chavez then if he thought a minimum wage for Texas farmworkers was possible.
Chavez responded, “Yes, I also believe there will be a union for farmworkers that will afford them a wage a lot higher than the minimum wage can give them.”
Chavez’s son, Paul, president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, was greeted as a celebrity at Monday’s midday rally in Milam Park that followed a morning mass at San Fernando Cathedral and an abbreviated march to the park.
“We’re here honoring the past, but we’re preparing for the future,” Paul Chavez said.
Paul and event organizer Rebecca Flores echoed the call to action.
“We’re not a priority for anybody at the federal level, the state level, at no level,” Flores said.
They both said laws are in the books, but enforcement is often lacking. Still, they said they were inspired by the day’s events.
“I think we have a movement. We Chicanos have movement, and I think it’s going forward,” Flores said.
Paul said he believes once the American public learns more about how agribusiness is addicted to cheap labor, “They’ll stand with us and ensure that workers, regardless of legal status, are treated right and they’re treated justly.”