Jessie Lopez De La Cruz

Jessie Lopez was born in Anaheim, California, in 1919 to parents Guadalupe Lopez and Fermin Fuentes.

Her family was poor, and worked in mostly agrarian labor jobs, but it is noted that one of her uncles was a street maker in Orange County during the development of the 1920s.

Even though Lopez was a laborer at an early age, she also attended school.

In winter 1929, after returning to LA from Arvin, California, she attended 109th street elementary along with her siblings.

She was the best English speaker in her house and assisted the other children with their schoolwork.

Beginning in 1929, the Lopez family began migrating north for work.

In that year, they arrived in Arvin, California, in the San Joaquin Valley and worked as a crew picking cotton.

Her Aunt Maria, who Jessie recalled as her sister because of their close age and sister like relationship, was killed in a tragic accident when her dress caught fire, causing her to perish.

In January 1930, her mother Guadalupe fell ill and was bedridden by February.

She died on March 11, 1930, and was laid to rest in Compton, California.

After the death of their mother, Lopez and her sisters moved back to Anaheim with their grandparents.

Her grandfather Basillo returned to cotton picking in the San Joaquin Valley to support them, but fell ill shortly after and died of dropsy on June 14, 1930.

The depression years were tough on the Lopez family.

Lopez's birthfather is unknown, Fuentez was her step father who fled the country in 1931 after an altercation with another man.

Lopez was the oldest of 3 daughters, and lived in a medium- to large-size extended family consisting of herself and her two sisters, Grandfather Basilio, Grandmother Rita, Mother Guadalupe, Uncle Edward, Uncle Dionisio, Aunt Dominga, Aunt Guillerma, Uncle Gregorio, Aunt (Referred to as sister because of their close age) Maria, and Basilo Jr. Lopez's mother, Guadalupe Lopez, was a native of Aguascalientes, Mexico and her birth father's background is unknown.

Lopez started working in Southern California fields in and around Orange County, California, at 5 years old, doing such work as: pruning vines, picking oranges, peas, beets, prunes, cotton, and grapes.

She resided in Anaheim until she was 9 years old, after which point her family began traveling as migrant field workers.

In 1931 they became migrant workers again, often sleeping roadside in a tent.

In 1932 the Lopez family found themselves in San Clemente (on the Orange County/San Diego County border) picking snap peas for low pay; 10 cents per hour for adults and nothing for the children.

Next they traveled to San Juan Capistrano to pick beans, and upon arrival the family saw what Lopez described as a "parade like" collection of workers.

The family camped out near the field for two days and they observed the strike.

A man from the Mexican Consulate came down to the field from Los Angeles to talk to the growers and the workers since many of them were Mexican.

He asked Lopez for help with English translations since she was one of the only bilingual persons there.

Lopez enjoyed this because she said she "felt useful" and she remembered it as her first experience in a labor dispute.

They moved back to Anaheim, and in April 1933 the family lost the home that Grandfather Basilo built because they were unable to pay a $150 property tax.

In 1933 the Lopez family relocated again to the San Joaquin Valley following the crops.

Upon arrival to Arvin, California, fields they encountered another strike of hundreds of diverse farm workers, and instead of becoming scabs, they joined in the fight.

They headed north for work, finding hard labor in Sacramento in the summer of 1933 picking cotton and grapes.

When their truck broke down in Mendota, California, Grandmother Rita decided that it was better for them to stay in the valley where there was always work instead of returning to Anaheim like they originally planned.

After floods destroyed their camp in Mendota, they moved south to Weedpatch, California, and took up residence in an abandoned granary.

The family was still poor, and they pulled mustard greens and wild mushrooms from ditch banks for food and drank potentially dangerous and contaminated water collected in large barrels infested with bugs.

At school one day Lopez began displaying signs of illness and was kept in the basement for the remainder of the day; it was typhoid fever, most likely contracted from the contaminated water, and she was kept in isolation at a Bakersfield hospital until overcoming the illness.

From 1933 to 1936 Her family continued to migrate up and down the Valley for work, including back breaking labor such as picking onions using a short-handled hoe.

Lopez met Arnulfo (to be referred to as Arnold for the remainder of this article) De La Cruz in 1933 while living in the same labor camp.

They became close in 1935 and on November 27, 1938, they eloped, and were officially married on December 18, 1938, in a Catholic church in Firebaugh, California.

There was no honeymoon; Arnold was back to work the next day and Jessie moved in with his family to help with the 10 children.

She remembered attending 45 schools as her family moved as migrant workers in Los Angeles county and the San Gabriel and San Joaquin valleys, including Las Palmas School in Anaheim off and on from 1st to 3rd grade.

Jessie Lopez De La Cruz (1919 – September 2, 2013) was a Chicano American farm worker, the first female recruiter for the UFW, an organizer and participant in UFW strikes, a community organizer, a working mother, and a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention.

She ran the first UFW Hiring Hall, was an adviser to the California Commission on the Status of Women, and the secretary treasurer of National Land for People (an organization that worked to break up land monopolies in the San Joaquin Valley).

Lopez-De La Cruz is also known for her work banning the short-handled hoe, her work educating fellow farm workers, her work promoting co-op farming, and her commitment to fighting injustice for the working poor.