Poverty In The Valley of Plenty

WARNING - THIS MOVIE WAS FOUND TO BE DEFAMATORY AND ALL COPIES ORDERED DESTROYED - IT IS PRESENTED HERE SOLELY FOR HISTORIC AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES
The original movie was produced by several Hollywood unions to support a strike of farmworkers at DiGiorgio Farms in the San Joaquin Valley. Ronald Reagan was considered for (but did not get) the part of narrator. Di Giorgio sued for defamation, and ultimately won in the courts, long after the strike was broken. As part of the settlement, all copies were ordered destroyed.
Presented here are the portions of the film which the Court found to be most defamatory - poor housing conditions (actually filmed at another site) and a staged performance of "wetbacks" smuggled in to be scabs. A young Congressman named Richard Nixon became involved in the investigation of the strike and this film, and his report formed the basis for the Court's ruling.
Compare the housing conditions (falsely) depicted here with the real conditions in my 1985 video of Farmworker Conditions in North San Diego and Monterey Counties. How much progress have we really made?
For the full story, read Ernesto Galarza's book: Spiders in the House, Workers in the Field.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Farmworkers
• Strikes
• Wetbacks
• Hollywood
• Agriculture
• Banned
• Defamation
• Unions
• Nixon
• Reagan

[fglass1934]

While true that "Di Giorgio...ultimately won in the courts", that was ten years later, when the film was used in a different context. by a different union. The first settlement was out of court, at the time of the strike, in 1950. Also, while Galarza's account was essential, a more comprehensive version is in Richard Street's recent book, Everyone Had Cameras: Photography and Farmworkers in California, 1850-2000."

[JDSackman]

@fglass1934 Thanks Fred! I was not aware of Richard Street's new book. His "Beasts of the Field" has been a useful reference and research tool for me.