Building and Sustaining Unity in the Farm Workers Movement: Supporting Question 3

About This Lesson

Students explore Supporting Question 3 through a series of activities that help them analyze the strategies used by farm workers to build and sustain unity during the Delano grape strike. Students will learn how the movement developed a sense of community and shared purpose among Mexican and Filipino farm workers through the symbolic practice of the unity clap, the physical space of Filipino Hall, and visual and performing art. Students will use these examples to reflect on the importance of cultivating community in movements for change.

Supporting Question

What strategies did farm workers use to build and sustain unity during the Delano grape strike?

Formative Task

Students will illustrate a strategy that farm workers used to build and sustain unity during the Delano grape strike and write a brief reflection.

Lesson Plan

Day 1

Activity 1: Reflect on Belonging 

In this lesson, students will explore how the farm worker movement fostered a sense of belonging among Filipino and Mexican farm workers. Open the lesson by inviting students to reflect on their own experience with belonging, a concept that can help explain how people come together and stay united around a shared purpose. Ask students to respond to the following prompts in their journals, letting them know that their reflections are private and will not be shared unless they choose to do so.

1. What traditions and practices do you have in your community that make you feel like you belong? 
2. What are some places in your community where you feel a sense of belonging? Think about where you go to eat, play, or spend time with others. If you don’t have a space like this, what would your ideal space of belonging look like? What would people do there? 

After students have had enough time to write, ask volunteers to share their reflection, clarifying that they are not required to share anything they’d prefer to keep private. Then ask students to discuss the following question with a neighbor:

• How might a person’s sense of belonging in a community influence their willingness or ability to participate in that community?

After pairs have discussed, ask volunteers to share their ideas with the class. Then remind students of these ideas that they learned about in previous lessons:

• Mexican farm workers joined Filipino farm workers in the Delano grape strike. 

• At the time, it was rare for farm workers from different racial or ethnic backgrounds to unite, because growers kept farm workers segregated and pitted different groups against each other to break each other’s strikes. 

• Language barriers had also prevented cooperation between Mexican and Filipino farm workers. Mexican workers primarily spoke Spanish, and Filipino workers spoke a variety of languages, primarily those from their native regions in the Philippines, including Ilocano, Pangasinan, and Tagalog. English was also commonly spoken among both groups.

Tell students that in 1966, a year after the Delano grape strike began, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the National Farm Workers Association combined into one union as the United Farm Workers Association. Explain that many leaders were concerned that the unity between Mexican and Filipino farm workers was fragile and that unity needed to be built and sustained in order for the strike to be successful. In this lesson, students will explore how Mexican and Filipino farm workers built and sustained unity among themselves during the Delano grape strike. 

Activity 2: Explore Filipino Hall as a Shared Space  

In this activity, students will explore how the shared space of Filipino Hall created a sense of belonging among Filipino and Mexican farm workers during the Delano grape strike. 

Explain to students that when the Delano grape strike began, farm workers shared the space at Filipino Community Hall in Delano, California, a community center where Filipino farm workers socialized and held union meetings. Although the United Farm Workers would later build their headquarters at a site named “40 acres,” Filipino Hall was the space that first brought Mexican and Filipino strikers together. Pass out the reading The Significance of Filipino Hall and break the class into small groups of three or four students. Share the following instructions for the activity:

• Read aloud the handout together in groups.

• Underline any information from the text that helps you answer the following question: Why was Filipino Hall important for building a sense of belonging and unity among Mexican and Filipino strikers?

• Discuss the question above with your group. 

Once groups have finished, ask volunteers to share ideas from their group’s discussion. 

Activity 3: Explore the Symbolism of the Unity Clap

Explain to students that another way that Filipino and Mexican farm workers cultivated unity was by participating in a recurring ritual, the “unity clap.” 

Tell students that they will now watch a video to learn what the unity clap symbolized. Before starting the video, share the discussion questions below to help students focus their attention while they watch. 

1. What did the unity clap represent to farm workers during the Delano grape strike?
2. What was the significance of making the unity clap a regular practice for farm workers?
3. How did the unity clap affect workers’ sense of belonging during the Delano grape strike? 

Play the video Unity Clap & Isang Bagsak. After students have finished watching, lead a brief whole-class discussion centered on the questions above. 

Activity 4: Lead a Unity Clap with Students

Just as farm workers ended their meetings with the unity clap, end the lesson by leading students in this ritual and reflecting on how shared practices can build connection and unity. See Teaching Note 1: Preparing for Facilitating the Unity Clap for additional guidance.

Lead the class in two versions of the unity clap. For the first exercise, explain to students that they will clap continuously on your cue and stop clapping when instructed. Clarify that they may clap as loudly or as softly as they wish, but full participation is required. Then cue your students to clap continuously for 10 to 15 seconds.  

Next, lead students in the unity clap. Explain that in this exercise, they’ll follow your lead, clapping slowly and deliberately to begin and then gradually increasing in speed. As the claps get faster, encourage students to stay focused and work together to maintain the rhythm. Explain that the goal is for everyone to be clapping together in unison at a fast pace, and that the activity will end when you count down from three and the group finishes with one loud, unified clap when you say “one.”

After the exercise, pose the following questions and ask volunteers to share in a brief class discussion: 

• What did you observe, think, or feel during the unity clap?

• How was your experience of both exercises different?

• How did performing the unity clap help you better understand its purpose in the farm worker movement?  

Day 2

Activity 1: Analyze a Back-Pin Button from the Delano Grape Strike

Begin the lesson by projecting the image of the Farm Worker Back-Pin Button. 

Then have students respond to the following prompts in their journals.

1. How might some farm workers have felt when they saw other farm workers wearing this button? Why?
2. How can art and symbols like this button help people feel connected to each other? 

Next, invite students to share their responses with a neighbor using the Think-Pair-Share strategy. After partners have discussed, ask for volunteers to share with the whole class. 

Explain to students that in this lesson, they will explore how the farm worker movement used art like this button to build a sense of connectedness and shared purpose among farm workers. In particular, students will explore the role that theater played in the farm worker movement. 

Activity 2: Learn About El Teatro Campesino 

Explain to students that a unique feature of the farm worker movement was the presence of a theater group called El Teatro Campesino (translated to English as “The Farmworkers Theater”). Provide a brief mini-lecture by sharing the following details about El Teatro Campesino.

• El Teatro Campesino was founded by a Delano-born farm worker, Luis Valdez, during the grape strike. 
• All the actors in the theater group were farm workers, and they performed short skits using humor and satire for the striking farm workers. 
• El Teatro Campesino called their short skits actos.
• Actos were performed at Filipino Hall, 40 Acres (the UFW’s headquarters), and in the fields on flatbed trucks. 
• The actos featured villains and heroes familiar to the audience: el patroncito (the boss), el huelguista (the striking farm worker), and el esquirol (the strikebreaker).
• Actors wore signs around their necks so the audience could quickly identify the characters.
• Actos were performed in Spanish and English, with English serving as a bridge between Filipino and Mexican farm workers as well as a broader audience of allies.
• Since literacy rates were low among farm workers, the union used theater performances by El Teatro Campesino to communicate important ideas to the farm worker community.

Next, explain to students that they will watch a short video clip from the 1966 documentary Huelga (Strike) (8:17–12:00) to view an acto performed by El Teatro Campesino. Please note that Huelga was created in 1966, and the audio quality may make it challenging for students to hear clearly. See Teaching Note 2: Supporting Student Engagement with the Film Huelga for additional guidance.  

Distribute the handout Viewing Guide for Huelga and play the video for your students. Pause at the time stamps below so students can answer the viewing guide questions. 

1. What did California governor Pat Brown say that upset farm workers? According to Luis Valdez, how can the farm workers “get back” at the governor? (9:54) (Answer: Governor Brown told farm workers to go back to the fields in Spanish. Valdez said to make fun of the governor on the stage.) 
2. In the acto, what do the growers tell Governor Brown to say in Spanish? (12:00) (Answer: The growers tell Governor Brown to say “No huelga,” or no strike.)
3. What happens to Governor Brown by the end of the acto? (12:00) (Answer: Governor Brown undergoes a transformation and becomes a striking farm worker.)

After students have finished watching the video clip, transition into a class discussion of the film’s broader themes, using the following questions:

1. What is the overall message of the acto? What do you think the performers wanted the audience to think or believe? 
2. How might this message relate to the broader goals or vision of the farm worker movement? 
3. What impact do you think the acto would have had on the farm workers in the audience? How might theater impact an audience differently than a written text, image, or speech?
4. What is the relationship between art and movements for change? How might theater and storytelling be used to advance a cause like the farm worker movement? 

Activity 3: Reflect on the Significance of El Teatro Campesino 

Close the lesson by asking students to reflect on the significance of El Teatro Campesino in building a sense of togetherness among Filipino and Mexican farm workers. Remind students that growers had historically kept different ethnic groups segregated to prevent unity and organizing. Then project this quote by Philip Vera Cruz that students read when they were considering Supporting Question 1, which describes the impact that this segregation had on farm workers: 

“Each group is completely a stranger to the other even if both worked for the company for years.” ¹

—Philip Vera Cruz, Filipino farm worker and co-founder of the United Farm Workers, 1970

Ask students to respond to the following prompts in their journals: 

1. How did Filipino and Mexican farm workers go from being “strangers” to each other to becoming a part of a united movement? What strategies did they use?
2. Why do you think building community is important in movements for change? 

After students have finished writing, have volunteers share their responses with the class.

• 1Philip Vera Cruz, "Racism in Agriculture," El Malcriado, May 15, 1970, vol. 3, no. 25, 7–8, Farmworker Movement Documentation Project, University of California San Diego, accessed March 26, 2025.

Formative Task

Illustrate a Strategy Farm Workers Used to Build Unity and Belonging

To answer the supporting question (“What strategies did farm workers use to build and sustain unity during the Delano grape strike?”), invite students to recall the ways that farm workers created a sense of unity and belonging in their movement. Explain to students that they will choose one strategy or tool that farm workers used to build unity—one that resonates with them personally—to create an illustrated scene that brings it to life.

Distribute the handout Illustrating Unity and Belonging in the Farm Worker Movement and review the expectations together before students begin. Encourage creativity while reminding students that their artwork should clearly communicate how the strategy they chose helped foster unity among farm workers.