In 1969, Dolores Huerta reached a stumbling block in which she questioned, “How do I stop eleven million people from buying the grape?” (Huerta, Proclamation of the Delano Grape Workers). The essence of Huerta’s question is that she needed to develop a different strategy that would prevent growers from gaining profits from grape sales. Meanwhile, two years into the grape boycott, farmworkers from Delano, California had gained the support for equal rights from political figures and consumers throughout the United States. Furthermore, Americans from all walks of life were able to sympathize with the farmworkers who merely sought for better working conditions, increased wages, and growers to recognize their union. In contrast, farmworkers wanted …show more content…
For that reason, it made the most sense to hinder the source of revenue for both grocers and growers. To do this, Huerta needed consumers to feel victimized by grocers and so she did: “Between us and the justice we seek now stand the large and powerful grocers who, in continuing to buy table grapes, betray the boycott their own customers have built. These stores treat their patrons; demands to remove the grapes the same way the growers treat our demands for union recognition-by ignoring them” (Huerta, Proclamation of the Delano Grape Workers). Pursuing this further, Huerta and others awakened a movement by calling for the grape boycott both domestically and internationally. Additionally, described in the book Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century written by Randy Shaw. Shaw narrates the personal account of Elaine Elinson, while studying in London, Cesar Chavez reached out to Elinson requesting she stay in London and organize the international grape boycott there in London. Soon more counties would join the bandwagon and stand up for the farmworkers civil rights. (Shaw, 35)
One may argue, grower violence aided the farmworkers. Moreover, the injustices shown toward farm workers presented themselves in front the U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing held in 1966 in Delano California between Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Leroy Galyen the Kern County Sheriff. Furious at the evidence of illegal arrests of strikers and picketers, Senator Kennedy questioned Sheriff