Lange, Dorothea. Gang of Filipino boys thinning lettuce. Salinas Valley, California. 1939. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017771807/.
In this lesson, students will analyze historical photographs of farmworkers using el cortito, the short-handled hoe, to explore changing labor conditions from 1939 to 2024. To begin, students will be engaged by questions connected to local lettuce farming, then students will analyze photos using a two-column notes organizer. Students observe, reflect, and compare working conditions across time then read a National Park Service article to deepen their contextual understanding of the Civil Rights Movement for farmworkers’ rights in California. Through discussion and inquiry, students examine why it took decades of protests to ban the tool and consider the lasting impact of race, power, and policy on farmworkers’ rights.
Migrant farmworkers were required by their employers to use the short-handled hoe or el cortito for thinning and weeding. Because it required them to stoop for long hours in the fields, the hoe became a symbol of the exploitative working conditions.
Source: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1352222
- What do you notice about the people and tools in this photograph?
- How might working long hours in the bent-over position seen in this photograph impact a person’s overall health and wellbeing?
- When comparing the 1939 photo and the 2024 photo, different tools are being used by the farmworkers in the fields. What do you think contributed to these changes?
ELA Standards
CCSS RI 11.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
Social Studies Standards
HSS Standard 11.6.5. Trace the advances and retreats of organized labor, from the creation of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations to current issues of a postindustrial, multinational economy, including the United Farm Workers in California.
Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world.
- Engage students by asking: What do you know/imagine about how lettuce is farmed in local agricultural fields? List what you know about this process starting from planting a seed to harvesting the plants on a large agricultural scale.
- Display an image of the short-handled hoe, and ask What do you know about this tool or its history in farming?
- Direct students to create two-column notes titled “Salinas Valley Lettuce Laborer Conditions”
- Ask students to label columns as 1939 and 2024.
- Project the two photos side-by-side and/or provide printed copies in small groups
- Display the following discussion questions and direct students to work in groups to take notes under the column for each photo:
- What do you see in the photo?
- What does this photo make you feel or think?
- What questions come up as you observe the photo?
- Facilitate a whole-class debrief, including the similarities and differences of the photos and what the photos tell us about the changes in farm labor practices from the 1930s and 2024.
- Direct students to research farmworker life by utilizing the National Park Service website: The Terrain of Farmworker Life.
- Questions to consider for deeper reflection:
- Why would a tool for farming be referred to as el cortito (“the short one”) and el brazo del diablo (“the devil’s arm”) in Spanish?
- Why would civil rights advocates want to ban the use of an agricultural tool?
- What has changed about farm labor conditions in California in recent years? What still needs to change?
- Reflect back on your knowledge about agricultural tools and farmworkers prior to starting this lesson. How has your understanding grown or changed? What can you take away from your learning experience? Provide specific examples from the photographs to support your reflection.
Lange, Dorothea. Filipino thinning lettuce. Salinas Valley, California. 1939. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017771824/.
Lange, Dorothea. Gang of Filipino boys thinning lettuce. Salinas Valley, California. 1939. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017771808/.