Jessie de la Cruz: A profile of a United Farm Worker

Soto, Gary. 2000. Jessie de la Cruz: A profile of a United Farm Worker. New York: Persea Books. 0-89255-253-0.

Plot Summary

The story of Jessie de la Cruz is a beautiful, rich, life journey of a strong woman. Jessie had the courage and perseverance of a hardworking farm worker who harnessed her strengths in order to bring people together for La Causa. Soto retells Jessie’s life from her youth during the Depression to the present. It is a portrait of a United Farm Worker, an activist who influenced many other workers over the course of her lifetime. It is a harrowing, honest depiction of a Mexican-American woman with the soul of a natural human rights activist.

Critical Analysis
Gary Soto recreates so many aspects of Jessie’s life, family, and work in this flowing narrative. It is vivid in illustrating her life in all of its trials and tribulations, and beautifully shares the voice of Jessie and her strength and optimism throughout. This is a historical look at the development and work of the United Farm Workers organization and its many everyday activists.

The text is a bit raw, and often the sentences lacked solid footing. This may have been in light of making the story readable to a younger audience, but this reader felt it made the book seem poorly edited. It reads like the author is transcribing the interviews and less like a storyteller sharing a tale of a life. For example, "More often than not life was severe for young Jessie. She kept being pulled from school in order to work in different rural places" (p8). The reader remains at a great distance from Jessie as a character by this style of writing.

The photographs give the reader a better understanding of the issues raised in the text. Such as, the conditions in the workcamp (p59), the experiences associated with picketing (p63), and the position of a body planting all day long (p65) . They also give a historical context because of the time period they were taken during, by way of the automobiles, the dress and hairstyles.

Soto does an excellent job at illustrating how Jessie's story is not only similar to other Mexican-American California laborers, but also the similarities and struggles between the undocumented Mexican laborers that were at odds with the strikes. Jessie shows how the fight was about the workers, all of them, regardless of their backgrounds, and against the officials and farm owners that oppressed the workers.

Providing personal expressions and intimate emotional feelings, Soto gives the impression that Jessie exposed all of herself in order to make the story accurate. For example, when driving through Yosemite with Blanche, Jessie joked, "My brother taught me a lot of English words, but I had trouble with the word 'Yosemite'. She used to pronounce it "Yo-so-mite". In the next paragraph, "Only weeks before, she had been sleeping in a fancy hotel...now she was bent over a row of plants...her arms and legs were tired"(p80). Soto continually juxtaposes the various aspects of Jessie's life in this way. Perhaps to illustrate the true nature of an activist, still working in the field against the very situation she was fighting to improve. Perhaps, to show the vast gap between those that had and those that did not. However, her story would not certainly be as fantastic had she "continued to move up the ranks into office jobs" as other activists in the UFW were doing. It is never clear why she continues to live and struggle in this way, or if it is by choice.

Jessie's identity as a Mexican-American is important to understanding every aspect of the story. She identifies with her brothers here in California as much as she identifies with them in Mexico and fellow Filipino workers, but it is never questioned that she is American. This is best exemplified in her congretional testimony at the end of the book. Her use of Spanish to communicate with the workers was vital to bringing people together, understanding the goals, and preserving that sense of unity. Her use of English to communicate with the officials was as essential to bring the message across in conversations with the government. This bilingualism is an extremely valuable asset to the UFW movement and to her role within the work and the fight. Soto, does not address this forthright, however it is a component that the book implies and would be understood by the young adult audience.

Jessie's financial circumstances are a vital component to the story. It is mentioned several times the way she prepares food (and what she prepares: tortillas, beans, etc), clothes, and home every evening for her family even after working all day in the field. She was forced to learn the brutal lessons of death by losing several family members in one year and this becomes a foundation for her continued perseverance and resilence through trials to come. The struggles of farmworkers are likely similar today. Indeed, most of the problems workers were facing during Jessie's life are still current today. The immigration politics today rest on alot of this struggle.


Review Excerpts

"In this clear and moving narrative, enhanced by photographs of the period, Jessie De La Cruz comes to life. Her feelings and experiences are captured against a background of the Depression and the civil rights and labor movements. For those looking for inspiration, who wish to do big things-Jessie is living proof that it can be done." http://www.perseabooks.com/jessiedelacruz.html





"I was so deeply moved by this portrait of a true American heroine." - Studs Terkel http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780892552856&z=y#CRV


"While unapologetically devoted to his subject, the author effectively personalizes the struggle of farmworkers in a manner that will enable students to understand and care about their triumphs."-Mary R. Hofmann http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780892552856&z=y#CRV



Connections

Other Mexican-American migrant worker's experiences:

• Breaking Through, or The Circuit, or Cajas de Carton or La Mariposa all by Francisco Jimenez
• Voices from the Fields by S. Beth Atkins

United Farm Workers tie-ins:

• Harvesting Hope: The story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull
• Cesar Chavez: a hero for everyone also by Gary Soto
• Dolores Huerta juvenile biographies

Other female labor activists to introduce:

• Mary (Mother) Jones (1843-1930) labor unions (1843-1930)
• Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964) American Civil Liberities Union
• Activists involved in the great Arizona mine strike of 1983
• Rose Pesotta (1896-1948), labor organizer and ILGWU board member

Additional Information


Author Gary Soto was once a farm worker himself.