The 300-Mile March to Sacramento

Three months after farm workers struck in Delano, growers successfully managed to replace striking workers with workers from outside Delano and as far away as Texas. Many felt that the farm workers were losing the strike. In response, the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) developed a plan: a 300-mile peregrinación, or pilgrimage, from Delano to Sacramento. A pilgrimage is a religious journey, and for the largely Catholic farm workers, their journey would end in sacrament on Easter Sunday. The NFWA saw the pilgrimage as a way to renew the spirit of the striking workers, build support from farm workers outside of Delano, and inform the nation of the farm workers’ cause. 

The pilgrimage began on March 17, 1965, in Delano with a small group of Mexican and Filipino farm workers and ended on April 10, Easter Sunday, with a rally of 10,000 supporters in front of the California state capitol in Sacramento. Roberto Bustos, a Delano farm worker and march captain, recalls: 

Over [300] miles we marched, passing through 53 towns and … we stayed overnight in some of them … We had 4 scouts ahead of the march to tell the community we were coming, and that we would need shelter, food, water, and support! So every town we arrived at[,] a rally was planned to inform them of our mission and to invite them to join us to Sacramento! So every town we stopped at the workers would join us[,] some all the way[,] others would join us on the weekends! So the march grew every day! From 77 to hundreds to thousands! ¹

The pilgrimage also drew national media attention. One civil rights activist from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee observed, “It was the action that put the strike in headline news.” As a result, the farm worker movement began receiving widespread support from ordinary people from across the nation who contributed through donations and volunteering.

This reading is used in a Jigsaw activity in the lesson Building Support for the Farm Workers Movement: Supporting Question 4. Explore the other readings used in this activity: 

• Farm Workers Gain Support of Influential Leaders
• How Farm Workers Built Alliances to Sustain Collective Action
• The California Grape Boycott

• 1Roberto A. Bustos, “The March to Sacramento,” Farmworker Movement Documentation Project, University of California San Diego, accessed March 27, 2025.