In this image, Roberto Trevino, a senior at University of Washington, discusses a summer voter registration drive for Mexican-Americans in Yakima Valley that he headed in his hometown of Granger, Washington. During this same period, Mr. Trevino, along with his brother Carlos Trevino and fellow student Guadalupe Gamboa, formed the first strike organizing committee in the hop fields of Yakima Valley in 1970 in response to poor working conditions for farm workers such as substandard facilities and seven-day work weeks without overtime. Strike activity in the hop fields was run through the United Farm Workers Co-op and Service Center, and Trevino’s organizing work helped to maintain a constant United Farm Workers of America (UFW) presence in the valley.
The UFW of Washington State continues to be one of the strongest advocates for civil and labor rights in the state of Washington.
Caption information source: "To Harvest a Fertile Battlefield," by Hilda Bryant, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 23, 1971. Caption information source: "Farm workers in Central Washington found the United Farm Workers of Washington State on September 21, 1988," by Oscar Rosales Castaneda, HistoryLink.org Essay 8302. Caption information source: "UFWOC Yakima Valley Hop Strikes, 1971," The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, University of Washington.
