Azada de Mango Corto
date: label: Date made
content: 1936
name: label: user
content: Chavez, Librado Hernandes
label: user
content: Chavez, Cesar Estrada
notes: label: Description
content: A short Handled hoe, 1936 hoe. Original owner Librado Hernandez Chavez, (father of Cesar Estrada Chavez). The hoe has a metal blade welded to a metal neck and a wooden handle. The two are attached by a slot screw. The top edge of the blade is similar to the two curves at the top of a valentine hear. Blade recently sharpened.
label: Description
content: The short-handled hoe brings back memories of back-breaking labor for generations of Mexican and Mexican American migrant workers who sustained California's booming agricultural economy. Since the late 1800s, its expansive fields of produce have relied on a cheap, mobile, and temporary workforce. The short-handled hoe required workers to bend painfully close to the ground to weed and thin crops. The state abolished the short-handled hoe in 1975, ruling it an occupational hazard after a seven-year legal battle. During this period of political mobilization, the predicament of the migrant farm worker became emblematic of the limited opportunities and the cycle of poverty that trapped many Mexican Americans. In 1966, when Mexican and Filipino American farm workers were brought together under the banner of the United Farm Workers of America, the struggle for labor rights was understood by its supporters as part of the much larger civil rights movement. It was not just important for Mexican Americans but also other low-paid workers. The hoe pictured here belonged to Librado Hernandez Chavez, father of civil rights leader and farm worker organizer, Cesar Estrada Chavez.
label: Description (Spanish)
content: La azada de mango corto es un recordatorio de aquellas épocas en que generaciones de trabajadores migratorios mexicanos y mexicoamericanos se quebraban las espaldas en las labores que sustentaron la floreciente economía agrícola de California. Desde fines del 1800, las extensiones de campos de producción agrícola crecían respaldadas en la mano de obra barata, móvil y temporaria. La azada de mango corto exigía que los trabajadores se agacharan penosamente cerca del suelo para poder desbrozar y entresacar los cultivos. El estado abolió la azada de mango corto en 1975, decretándola como elemento de riesgo laboral luego de una batalla que se prolongó siete años. Durante esta época de movilización política, el predicamento del trabajador agrícola se convirtió en un emblema de la limitación de oportunidades y el ciclo de pobreza en el que muchos mexicoamericanos se hallaban atrapados. En 1966, cuando los trabajadores del campo, mexicoamericanos y filipinoamericanos, se unieron bajo la bandera del Sindicato de Trabajadores Agrícolas de América (UFW, por sus siglas en inglés) , la lucha por los derechos laborales fue comprendida por sus partidarios como parte del movimiento más amplio por los derechos civiles. No sólo era importante para los mexicoamericanos, sino también para otros trabajadores mal pagos. La azada que aquí se ilustra pertenecía a Librado Hernández Chávez, padre del líder de los derechos civiles y organizador de los trabajadores agrícolas, César Estrada Chávez.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: California, San Jose
title: label: Title
content: Short Handled Hoe
topic: label: general subject association
content: Labor Unions
label: referenced
content: Farmers and Ranchers
label: used
content: Migrant Workers
label: used
content: Latino
setName: label: See more items in
content: Political History: Political History, Labor History Collection
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Mexican America
label: See more items in
content: American Enterprise
label: See more items in
content: Agriculture
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Rita Chavez Medina
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1998.0197.01
label: accession number
content: 1998.0197
label: catalog number
content: 1998.0197.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: hoe
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brown (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (blade material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (handle material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16 in x 5 in; 40.64 cm x 12.7 cm