Embedded Files
Told in the Perspective of the Silva Family
by Gisele Valdovinos
Mission of the project
Mission of the project
This is a project that is very close to my heart as it tells the story of my family and of my home. This project is about farm workers in the 1960s-1970s in the Imperial Valley; it is about their work, life and their involvement in activism. The Imperial Valley is a small county that is made of many agragrian cities that is near the Mexicali Border. Throughout the years in this county many families have immigrated to the Imperial Valley to find boundless amount of work in the fields in order to feed and house their families. My family came into the Imperial Valley during the 1960s and would all work in the fields. This was a time where farm workers were exploited for their labor as they had very low wages and bad working conditions. The rise of the UFW would change this and influenced farm workers to come together. I would like to tell this story as it is one that often overlooks the individual farmworkers that were involved in the UFW and it allows my family's story to be heard.
The Silva Family:
This story will be told through the perspectives of 4 of my family members that worked in the fields in the 1960s and the 1970s:
Gustavo Silva
(my grandpa)
Gustavo Silva was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 1955. A couple years later, his family would move to Mexicali, Mexico, in order to work in the fields. Later, he would move to the Imperial Valley when he was in middle school. When he entered high school, he would also start working in the fields. He would later have to drop out of school in order to help his family. He would work in the fields from the late 1960s until just a couple years ago when he retired in 2022. He worked very hard all his life in order to provide for his family.
Maria Silva
(my grandma)
Maria Silva was born in Mexicali, Mexico to Abigail and Jose Gomez in 1955. Her family immigrated to Holtville, California when she was in high school. She would also drop out of high school in order to work with her family. She would later meet my grandpa and they would have 3 children. They would work together all across California in the fields. She would later stop working in the fields to work in other industries to have more time to raise her children
Shot from the movies Cesar Chavez (2014) by Diego Luna and Fight in the Fields (1997) by Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Telles
Isabel Silva
Isabel Silva
(my great-grandmother)
Isabel Silva was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 1924 in a small village. There she met her late husband Javier Silva, and they would have 15 children together. The family would later migrate to Mexicali in order to work in the fields as they were part of Bracero program in the 1950s. In the early 1960s she would immigrate to Holtville, California.She and her famiy worked in the fields all accross California. In the 1970s, she would join th UFW and fight for the rights of Imperial Valley farm workers with the UFW. She is now 100 years old and is still very proud of her involvement in the UFW.
Javier Silva Jr.
Javier Silva Jr.
(my uncle)
Javier Silva Jr. was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 1942. He would immigrate to the Imperial Valley with his family when he was a teenager. He was unable to finish highschool or go to college as he would help his family by working in the fields. He would work in the fields from the early 1960s until the late 1980s, more than 20 years in the industry, to provide for his 3 children.He was deeply involved in the UFW and finds the UFW to be very impactful in his life.
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