Today several hundred thousand Indigenous farmworkers from southern Mexico labor in fields, not just in California, but all over the U.S. Their culture, and their political and labor activism, are changing rural communities profoundly.
Chavez was the public figure, but Huerta and farmworkers across America, including in Illinois, carried the farm labor movement. Metro Chicago has more agricultural workers than other parts of Illinois — they tend nurseries and landscape or mow lawns
Farmworkers know that consumers have no idea how much human effort it takes to get broccolini onto our dinner tables.
Between October 2023 through November 2025, the California Agriculture Labor Relations Board has certified the United Farm Workers to represent hundreds of workers statewide, according to state records.
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