Hello and thank you for downloading the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service.

In the 1960s, a wave of strikes and protest marches by farm workers inspired Latinos

across the USA. The movement was led by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Werter, who worked with Chavez,

played the Simon Watts in 2012.

It's 1966, and the small group of Mexican-American farm workers are marching from the grape-growing

town of Delano to the Californian State Capitol Sacramento.

The great pickers cover nearly 400 miles in 25 days, walking behind banners of the Virgin

Mary and the Mexican eagle. They're on strike to demand decent pay and conditions.

There were 70 strikes that left Delano to march the Sacramento, and they went to all the

farm worker towns. We had people going ahead of the march, and they would organize people

to greet the strikers, someplace where families would take them in and feed them, and there

would be a rally at every place that they went. And so when they arrived in Sacramento,

there were 10,000 people there. It was just a very unifying moment to see that great march.

Dolores Werter worked side-by-side with Cesar Chavez in a union called the United

Farm Workers of America. They were committed to non-violent protest.

Dolores that are oppressing us, they're the ones that are fighting us and putting us in jail,

and there was this huge argument among the workers. And Cesar said to them, let's look here,

how many of you have argued with each other or fought with each other about some petty issue?

Think about this, and of course they started talking about, yes, I remember, maybe so and so

got more food than I did, or so kind of jealousy. By the end of that conversation, which is very heated,

everybody agrees it has to be a penitental march because we are not perfect, right?

We have also done some things that we shouldn't have done.

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