My Great Grandma

Luis F.

Period 1

4/11/12

My Great Grandmother

My great grandmother's name is Dominga Lozano and she marched with Cesar Chavez. She used to work in the farms picking fruit and vegetables. My uncle told me a story once on how he used to work in construction and upholstery, but he had never been more tired than when he worked in the fields with my great grandma. My grandma lived in Mexicali and would get up at 1:30 in the morning and leave her house before 2 so she could cross the border and be one of the first to be picked, as it was a first come first serve system. The Foremen would only select the amount of workers needed according to the amount of labor scheduled, and only the best were chosen. Needless to say, she was always one of the first workers to get picked. She was only 5 feet tall and would get more work done faster than other 6 foot tall men. She always worked hard and when she heard about Cesar Chavez protesting for the farmers, she also started protesting at her farms. Cesar Chavez lead a group called United Farm Workers (UFW) which wanted higher wages for farmers. When Cesar Chavez had protests away from where she lived, she would travel to where he was protesting and support him. One day when Cesar Chavez was in Fresno she traveled with her sister to Fresno to work in the fields but when his protest began she would leave the fields and go protest. “From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength” (Cesar Chavez). Cesar Chavez once said this quote at one of his first protests in Arizona. He was trying to convince people to stand up for their rights and that united we could make a difference. One time my aunt bought a bowl of grapes and when my great grandma went over that day, she squished the grapes and threw them in the trash. At this time my great grandma was protesting against the consumption of grapes and was very angry when my aunt bought the grapes. On September 8, 1965 Cesar Chavez went on a historical grape strike that started in Delano and ended in Sacramento, California's state capital. The strike lasted 5 years and finally made a difference because the US Senate Committee on Labor agreed to raise wages for farm workers. My mom told me a story that at the end of one day the foremen went out to the fields and picked the workers he needed the next day and told them that they were going to a different farm and had to be out in the fields earlier than usual. The next day my great grandma was suppose to be at work but fell asleep and by the time she got to the farm the bus she was suppose to be on had already theft. The bus that she was suppose to be on was driving next to a canal and rolled over on to the canal. Half of the people that were on the bus didn't make it out of the bus in time and died. One of my great grandmothers friend had taken his two daughters and his son that day and died in the bus. All four of them had died. This is just one story of people protesting and standing up for what they believed in, but this goes to show that if people want change they must stand together, and together they can make a difference.