Viva La Huelga

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Text on Button VIVA LA HUELGA
Image Description

White button with black text and a black and white photograph in the center.

Curl Text Emiliano Zapata (union bug)
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Year / Decade Made
Additional Information

This button was made by the United Farm Workers, a union of Filipino and Mexican American farm workers, in the 1970s. The United Farm Workers were led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and won the right to organize farm workers after the Delano grape boycott in 1965-1970. The words Viva La Huelga, meaning long live the strike, are the rallying cry of the United Farm Workers. 

The picture is of Emiliano Zapata, a leader of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Zapata called for a redistribution of land and is remembered in Mexico today as a supporter of peasants and Native Americans. He became a central symbol of the United Farm Workers and the Delano Grape Boycott.

Sources

Brunk, S. (2008) The Posthumous Career of Emiliano Zapata: Myth, Memory, and Mexico's Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Catalog ID CA0124