El Plan de Delano (the Plan of Delano)

In 1965, farm workers in Delano, California, went on strike against grape growers in the region. Their motivations were expressed in a document created by the National Farm Workers Association called El Plan de Delano (the Plan of Delano), excerpted below. El Plan de Delano was circulated among farm workers and read aloud at mass meetings.

We seek our basic, God-given rights as human beings. Because we have suffered-—and are not afraid to suffer-—in order to survive. We are ready to give up everything, even our lives in our fight for social justice …

Now we will suffer for the purpose of ending the poverty, the misery, and the injustice, with the hope that our children will not be exploited as we have been. They have imposed hungers on us, and now we hunger for justice. We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. WE SHALL ENDURE.

We shall unite. We have learned the meaning of UNITY … the strength of the poor is also in union. We know that the poverty of the Mexican or Filipino worker in California is the same as that of all farm workers across the country, the Negroes and poor whites, the Puerto Ricans, Japanese, and Arabians … We must use the only strength that we have, the force of our numbers. The ranchers are few; we are many. UNITED WE SHALL STAND. 

We will strike … Our revolution will not be armed, but we want the existing social order to dissolve; we want a new social order. We are poor, we are humble, and our only choice is to strike in those ranches where we are not treated with the respect we deserve … where our rights … are not recognized … We want to be equal with all the working men in the nation; we want a just wage, better working conditions, a decent future for our children. To those who oppose us, be they ranchers, police, politicians, or speculators, we say that we are going to continue fighting until we die, or we win. WE SHALL OVERCOME. ¹

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• 1National Farm Workers Association, “El Plan de Delano,” California Department of Education, César E. Chávez Research Site, accessed February 27, 2025.