.png)
Texas AFT celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month!
Every year from September 15th to October 15th, Americans recognize and celebrate the history and culture of Hispanic and Latino communities and their many contributions to our culture and history. First established in 1968 as a week of celebration, the holiday expanded to a month in 1988, and September 15th was chosen as the start date because it marks the anniversary of five Central American nations' independence. Hispanic Heritage Month is not about one story, but the collective story of contributions from people with Hispanic heritage, woven from different nations, backgrounds, and generations. From science and the arts to education, public service, military service, labor, and more, Hispanic contributions appear in every facet of American life.
However, few sectors of American life have been impacted as much by Hispanic contributions as labor. Hispanic Americans have led collective bargaining movements that reshaped the fundamental relationship between labor and capital in the United States and strengthened workers' rights at the local, state, and national level during their struggle for civil rights throughout the 20th century. The earliest example of this struggle is the 1938 San Antonio Pecan Shellers strike led by Emma Tenayuca. Tenayuca, a young Mexican American woman, achieved better wages through collective bargaining and strikes.
The largest Hispanic-led labor movement began in the 1960s with the formation of the United Farm Workers (UFW) in California. This movement grew out of a strike against Delano-area grape growers by Filipino and Hispanic migrant workers seeking better wages, workplace safety, and living standards, as agribusiness routinely underpaid and exploited migrant workers. The strike lasted five years, involved 10,000 workers, with the UFW eventually leading a nationwide boycott that drew national attention. The movement led to a three-year collective bargaining agreement with grape growers that guaranteed better wages, benefits, and protections, and in 1975, California passed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which guaranteed collective bargaining protections for agricultural workers, the first of its kind.
These victories still shape labor today. The UFW's consumer boycott became a model for later movements, the contracts with grape growers brought some of the first health and pesticide protections to the fields, and the Agricultural Labor Relations Act gave farmworkers in the nation's largest agricultural state a legal right to organize they had not had before. The movement also inspired a generation of Latino activism, leading the way for Latino civil rights and political organization.
Today, Hispanic workers make up the fastest-growing share of the American workforce and are the backbone of many industries. Hispanic labor leaders continue to lead the way in fighting for workers' rights, including here at home. Texas AFT is a plurality Hispanic union, reflecting the students, families, and communities our members serve every day. The majority of Texas students are Hispanic; this makes celebrating Hispanic culture and achievement inseparable from the work of Texas AFT and the students we serve.
Our leadership reflects this as the Texas AFL-CIO is currently led by President Lenoard Aguilar and Secretary-Treasurer Lorraine Montemayor, which marks the first time two Hispanic leaders have led the Texas AFL-CIO. Lenoard Aguilar, a San Antonian plumber and former secretary-treasurer, and Lorraine Montemayor, a Dallas AFL-CIO organizer and political director, exemplify the continuing contributions of Hispanic labor leaders within our own organization. Additionally, Texas AFT’s Secretary-Treasurer, Wanda Longoria, is a Hispanic labor leader, having previously served as president of Northside AFT.
From Emma Tenayuca’s pecan sheller strike to the leaders guiding Texas labor today, Hispanic workers have played a key role in organizing labor throughout American history. Hispanic Heritage Month gives us the opportunity to recognize those contributions through history and in Texas AFT today.
