Library of Congress Resources

A large number of primary source collection materials related to Hispanic American history including manuscripts, newspaper articles, images, and rare books are digitized and available online via the Library of Congress' website. In addition, the Library also provides digital content on Hispanic American history through blogs, exhibits, special collections, online research guides, and teaching resources. These guides provide information on print, electronic, and digitized content as well as information on search strategies.

Select Library of Congress Reading Rooms

The following reading rooms may be of particular interest to those researching Hispanic American topics at the Library of Congress.

The American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress to "preserve and present American folklife" through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference service, live performance, exhibitions, publications, and training. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, the American Folklife Center continues to collect and document living traditional culture, while preserving for the future its unparalleled collections in the state-of-the-art preservation facilities of the Library of Congress.
Hispanic Reading Room
The Hispanic Reading Room is the primary access point for research related to the Caribbean, Latin America, Spain and Portugal; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including Latinos in the U.S. and peoples of Portuguese or Spanish heritage in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Manuscript Reading Room
The Manuscript Division seeks to preserve personal papers and organizational records that document the course of America's national experience. Its more than twelve thousand collections and more than seventy million items touch upon every aspect of American history and culture. The Manuscript Division's holdings are strongest, however, in the areas of American national government, the federal judiciary, diplomacy, military history, women's history, and black history.
Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room
The Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room is the gateway to the newspaper, comic book, current periodicals, and government document collections held by the Serial and Government Publications Division. The Division holds one of the most comprehensive collections of newspapers in the world, the largest publicly available comic book collection in the world, scholarly journals and popular magazines from the most recent two years, a U.S. Federal Depository Library collection, a comprehensive United Nations documents collection, and an extensive collection of general and specialized reference works.
Science and Business Reading Room
The Science and Business Reading Room is the gateway to the general collections for information on science and business. Business Reference Services is the starting point for conducting research at the Library of Congress in the subject areas of business and economics.

Library of Congress Blogs

The Library of Congress hosts a series of blogs which feature compelling stories and fascinating facts about its diverse collections. The following blog posts are just a sampling of posts that highlight the Hispanic American experience with a focus on business, labor, entrepreneurship, and science. To find more blog posts on the topic please see the archives of Inside Adams blog and main Library of Congress Timeless Blog.

AFC’s Occupational Folklife Project Continues to Expand, June 26, 2023, Folklife Today
The number of engaging, publicly-accessible interviews with American workers in the AFC’s Occupational Folklife Project (OFP) collection continues to expand and diversify. To date, AFC-funded fieldworkers across the United States have recorded almost 1,800 audio and audiovisual oral history interviews with workers in scores of trades, industries, crafts, and professions. More than 850 of these OFP interviews are now available online to researchers and members of the public –and more are being added each month!
Around the World in Research Guides: The Origins of the Hispanic Division Country Guides, February 23, 2021, 4 Corners of the World
One of our goals with the country guides was the creation of another digital pathway to the Hispanic Division’s unique tools and services, primarily the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) and the PALABRA Archive. Each country guide provides a curated list of books, articles, and other scholarly sources found in HLAS.
CCDI Awardee Hoboken Public Library Explores the Puerto Rican Experience in America, May 15, 2024,Of the People: Widening the Path
HPL is receiving $69,449.39 for their project, “The Puerto Rican Experience in Hoboken and America,” which explores the Puerto Rican experience in America, with Hoboken as a paradigm. Using the Library’s digital collections, as well as materials from the Hoboken Public Library and the Hoboken Historical Museum, HPL will produce an interactive timeline that illustrates the histories and relationships between the United States and its territory, Puerto Rico, with an emphasis on 1960s emigration from the island to Hoboken. 
Celebrating Cesar Chavez: Primary Sources on Farm Workers’ Living and Working Conditions, March 30, 2015, Teaching with the Library
Read a post by Arline Troncoza on primary resources on California's farm working conditions with supplementary teaching materials.
Community Collections Grants Recipients: Puerto Rican Coffee Traditions with Russell Oliver, September 2, 2022 Of the Widening Path
The following is an interview with filmmaker Russell Oliver and his Community Collections Grant project, Documenting the Stories, Agricultural Traditions, and Culture of Specialty Coffee Farmers in Puerto Rico.
Coverage of an Early Labor Movement: Using Historical Newspapers to Analyze the Pecan Sheller Strike, November 30, 2021, Teaching with the Library
On January 31, 1938, 12,000 pecan shellers in San Antonio, Texas, walked away from their jobs to protest working conditions and pay.
Creating Communities and Building Collections One Conversation at a Time, October 1, 2020, Folklife Today
To celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Hispanic Division and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, in collaboration with StoryCorps, are calling on members across the Latinx communities to engage with the Library’s collections by browsing through selected collection items and recording conversations about them with a friend or loved one. We invite you to donate your recorded conversations to help us tell a richer, fuller, and more detailed story of the Latinx experience in the US.
Early Labor Rights and Activism: Learning about the 1938 Pecan Sheller's Strike, November 9, 2021, Teaching with the Library
On January 31, 1938, about 12,000 Mexican Americans employed as pecan shellers walked out from their jobs to protest the pecan shelling companies. But what led to such a large group of workers organizing a strike? Photographs from the online collections of the Library of Congress can allow students to learn more about the living and working conditions of these workers.
Hispanic Heritage Month: Selena’s “Ven Conmigo,” September 22, 2021, Timeless Stories by the Library of Congress
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, author Joe Nick Patoski, who has been writing about Texas music and musicians for five decades, examines Selena’s 1990 album, “Ven Conmigo.” It was added to the Library’s National Recording Registry in 2019.
Homegrown Foodways Film Premiere: El Camino del Mole a New Orleans, November 14, 2023, Folklife Today
El Camino del Mole a New Orleans traces the story of Ivan Castillo from his kitchen where he produces (mostly) traditional Mexican foods to the stage where he performs in drag as Ivett Donnelly. I first met Ivan in 2011 when he worked as head chef at Norma’s, a Honduran restaurant in New Orleans. Ivan, originally from a small town in Veracruz, had to adjust his Mexican spices and learn Honduran dishes like baleadas and pollo con tajadas to appeal to the Honduran clientele.
Honoring Hispanic Americans: Celebrating Mexican American Contributions, September, 21, 2021, Inside Adams.
The author concentrates on Mexican American contributions to the U.S. economy for this blog by using a number of resources available through the Library of Congress American Folklife Center (AFC), looking through the lens of occupational information. I will examine Mexican American contributions recorded by the Occupational Folklife Project (OFP), the related individual worker reflections celebrated in the new America Works podcast, and the StoryCorps project, which has its archive at the Library of Congress.
Honoring Hispanic Americans: Population and Business Trends, October 13, 2021, Inside Adams
For anyone wanting to research topics related to Hispanic/Latino business and industry, the Library of Congress has some useful resources.
Huelga! Teaching about the Legacy of César Chávez, March 30, 2017, Teaching with the Library
March 31 marks the birthday and national holiday of the great labor activist, César E. Chávez. A Mexican American farm worker who became a civil rights icon, Chávez is seen by many as occupying a space on the Mt. Rushmore of U.S. non-violent protestors. To me, his work not only brought labor strife to light, but also helped bring the Mexican American struggle to the nation’s attention. Studying primary sources related to the work of this leader can deepen understanding of the conditions that led to his fight, how he championed labor rights, and contributed to the Hispanic American identity movement.
Luisa Capetillo: Puerto Rican Changemaker, November 18, 2019 4 Corners of the World
Luisa Capetillo was a Puerto Rican feminist, anarchist, journalist, and labor union leader who was temporarily in New York working with the Hispanic communities, especially the tobacco workers and labor leaders. Remembered by many in Puerto Rico as the first woman to wear pantalones (pants) in public, Capetillo was far from a fashion icon. She was a pioneer in addressing the problems facing the working class, the condition of women and children, and the importance of labor organizing in the island.
Luminarias: Celebrating Latinas Who Inspire Us March 10, 2021, 4 Corners of the World
In celebration of Women’s History Month, we share the stories of Latina Luminarias whose lives, actions, and bravery inspired our work. We call these women Luminarias (luminaries) because they “lit the way” during challenging times. Includes Jovita Idar (1885-1946) and Luisa Moreno (1907-1992).
New “This Month in Business History” Entries for United Farm Workers, César Chávez, and Dolores Huerta, November 13, 2023 Inside Adams
In researching Hispanic Americans for an upcoming library guide, the impact of these Americans on the U.S. labor movement, particularly those in agricultural farm workers’ unionization efforts in the mid-20th century became a focal point of study. I located resources on the UFW, César Chávez, and Dolores Huerta. These resources were published in separate entries, with an eye towards benefiting students and researchers who may be interested in the historical context of labor movements, and who may be particularly interested in studying the impact of Mexican Americans.
Primary Sources for Musical Learning: Exploring the Cuban-American Musical Heritage of Emilio and Gloria Estefan Part 2 — Cultural Memory and Musical Legacies, May 2, 2019 Teaching with the Library
On May 3, 2019, the Library of Congress celebrates the artistry of Emilio and Gloria Estefan, recipients of the 2019 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. This blog explores another Cuban-American recording from the Library of Congress that leads us to an exciting game, a groundbreaking educational institution, and a deeper appreciation for America’s diverse cultural communities.
Primary Sources for Musical Learning: Exploring the Cuban-American Musical Heritage of Emilio and Gloria Estefan–Diversity and Identity in “The Great Melting Pot," May 1, 2019, Teaching with the Library
Cuban-American music has a strong heritage that inspired the Estefans’ work. Exploring Cuban-American music through primary sources at the Library of Congress can lead students to exciting music and thoughtful inquiry about cultural identity. This will be the first of a two-part series exploring Cuban-American folk music at the Library of Congress.
Searching Spanish Language Newspapers in Chronicling America, October 11, 2023, Headlines & Heroes
Since 2011, Chronicling America* has grown its collection of newspapers by and for Hispanic Americans under the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) through the contributions of state partners. It currently holds 74 titles in Spanish from 11 states between 1836 to 1963. When reading about relevant topics and time periods, it is important to compare versions of the stories in the mainstream press with articles from the Spanish language press.

Library of Congress Digital Collections

The following resources, created and digitized by the Library of Congress, can be used to find out more about topics related to Hispanic Americans.

California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849 to 1900
The collection covers the dramatic decades between the Gold Rush and the turn of the twentieth century. It captures the pioneer experience; encounters between Anglo-Americans and the diverse peoples who had preceded them; the transformation of the land by mining, ranching, agriculture, and urban development; the often-turbulent growth of communities and cities; and California's emergence as both a state and a place of uniquely American dreams.
Chronicling America, Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1770-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Chronicling America, Historic newspapers from Puerto Rico
These titles are part of the Chronicling America Collection Historic Newspapers collection.
Chronicling America, Spanish Language Titles
You can search 74 titles of digitized newspapers in Spanish from 11 states between 1836 to 1963 in Chronicling America, an open-source newspaper database sponsored by the Library of Congress and NEA.
Food and Foodways Web Archive
The scope of the Food and Foodways collection of archived websites is broad, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of food studies. The collection provides an inclusive space for food-related sites proposed by nominators from a wide spectrum of subject areas and specialties.
National Child Labor Committee Collection
Working as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Lewis Hine (1874-1940) documented working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1924. The NCLC photos are useful for the study of labor, reform movements, children, working class families, education, public health, urban and rural housing conditions, industrial and agricultural sites, and other aspects of urban and rural life in America in the early twentieth century.
Occupational Folklife Project (OFP) , American Folklife Center (AFC), Library of Congress
The Occupational Folklife Project (OFP) began in 2010 as a multi-year project by the American Folklife Center (AFC) to document the culture of contemporary American workers during an era of economic and social transition. To date, fieldworkers across the United States have recorded more than 1300 audio and audiovisual oral history interviews with workers in scores of trades, industries, crafts, and professions. The OFC Project captures Hispanic workers organization efforts in the meatpacking industry.
Primary Source Set: Mexican American Migrations and Communities
The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching. The resources in this primary source set are intended for classroom use. If your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.
Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Perspectives
The collection encompasses historically important writings by prominent Puerto Rican political activists and historians dating from approximately seventy years before the Spanish-American war (1831) until some thirty years after it (1929). It includes 11 monographs scanned from printed copies and 39 political pamphlets and 2 monographs and a journal scanned from microfilm.
Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941
An online presentation of selections from a multi-format ethnographic field collection documenting the everyday life of residents of Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941.The entire collection consists of approximately 18 hours of audio recordings, 28 graphic images and 1.5 linear feet of print materials including administrative correspondence, field notes, recording logs, and more.. This online presentation provides access to a selection of items from this collection including 371 audio titles, 23 graphic images, a sampling of the dust jackets, and all the print material in the collection.

Library of Congress Research Guides

Research guides related to the study of relevant company, industry, marketing and occupational information prepared by Library of Congress reference librarians, are listed below.

Business and Labor History: Primary Sources at the Library of Congress
This guide highlights those special collections at the Library that would be of interest to researchers studying business and labor history with an emphasis on personal and organizations papers and related resources.
Business History: A Resource Guide
The resources included here will help those researching the history of American business, including industries, companies, and business leaders.
Business of Beauty: A Resource Guide
The beauty industry covers a wide range of products from cosmetics to skin care and everything in between. This guide covers this large and global business.
Chronicling America: A Guide for Researchers
This guide provides an overview of Chronicling America, a searchable digital collection of historic newspapers 1770-1963.
Colonies in America: Commerce, Business, and the Economy
This guide is intended for researchers interested in studying commerce and business during the Colonial period, defined for the purposes of this guide, as the time prior to the American Revolution. This guide covers all colonial possessions in the Americas, so although there is an emphasis on the British Colonies, it also includes material about French and Spanish possessions.
Corporate Annual Reports at the Library of Congress
Annual reports provide a window into how a company presents itself to its investors and the public and describe corporate performance at a particular point in time. This guide presents indexes for the vast collection of these reports at the Library.
Directories By Address: Inventories of Library Collections
There are directories that organize alphabetically and there are directories that organize by street address. The Library has both types, but this guide is primarily an inventory of directory collections where the directories are organized by address.
Doing Company Research: A Resource Guide
This guide provides ideas and strategies for researching companies, with a focus on more common sources that may be of use for those looking for information on companies that are active and for those looking for current information.
Doing Historical Company Research: A Resource Guide
This research guide provides links to selected print and electronic resources, as well as tips and tricks for those trying to find information on older or out of business companies.
Doing Industry Research: A Resource Guide
This guide is designed as a starting point for those looking for current information on industries. In addition, some historical sources are also included.
Dun & Bradstreet Reference Book Collection
R.G. Dun & Company, now known as Dun & Bradstreet, was a credit reporting agency that provided ratings on an enterprise’s financial strength and ability to pay back debts. This was useful information for those interested in doing business with or lending money to a particular company. Dun & Company published quarterly credit ratings on the merchants, manufacturers, and traders in the United States and Canada.
Fashion Industry: A Resource Guide
Resources for those studying the business aspects of the fashion and apparel industry.
Guide to Law Online: U.S. Puerto Rico
This guide, prepared by the Law Library of Congress, includes links to free online legal resources regarding Puerto Rico, focusing on its constitution; executive, legislative, and judicial branches; legal guides; and general sources.
Hispanic Origins in the United States: A Guide to Local History and Genealogy Sources
Compiled by subject specialists at the Library of Congress, this guide provides topical bibliographies for print and online resources on researching the genealogy of Hispanic families in the U.S., along with key national, state and local histories.
Influencer Marketing: A Research Guide
As a marketing strategy, companies hire individuals with a large social media following to promote products through their personal accounts. Use this guide to research the business of influencer marketing, current issues and regulations in the industry.
Latinx and Chicanx in STEM
This guide provides links to resources for children, young adults, teachers and the general public on Latinx/Chicanx in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and related fields.
Latinx and Latin American Collections: Resources in the American Folklife Center
This guide provides access to ethnographic collections documenting Latin American and Latinx cultural expressions in the US at the Library of Congress.
A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States
This Hispanic Reading Room research guide focuses on 20th and 21st century American court cases, legislation, and events that had important impacts on civil rights in Chicana/o/x, Hispanic, Latina/o/x, Mexican-American and Puerto Rican communities
Latinx Studies: Library of Congress Resources
This guide provides curated Library of Congress resources for researching LatinX Studies, including digitized primary source materials in a wide variety of formats, books and periodicals, online databases, and research strategies.
The PALABRA Archive at the Library of Congress
This guide provides access to the PALABRA Archive, a collection of audio recordings of poets and writers from Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, the Caribbean, and from other regions with Luso-Hispanic heritage reading from their works.
Puerto Rico: Hispanic Reading Room Research Guide
This guide provides curated Library of Congress resources for researching Puerto Rico, including digitized primary source materials in a wide variety of formats, books and periodicals, online databases, and tips for searching.
Real Estate Industry: A Resource Guide
This guide provides a starting point for researching both the residential and commercial real estate industries in the United States.
U.S. Census Connections: A Resource Guide
General reference publications and census finding aids help researchers identify sources for U.S. decennial and economic census information. This guide identifies useful resources for locating census publications at the Library of Congress and online.
U.S. Telephone Directory Collection
The Library of Congress's collection of telephone directories represents the following states and localities: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the city of Chicago. The dates of the directories span most of the 20th century. The Library's United States telephone directory collection consists of 8,327 digitized reels of microfilm; of these, about 3,500 are presented in this collection. The remainder of the collection may be requested from the Microform Reader Services (LJ 139).
Women in Business and the Workforce
This research guide highlights primary and secondary sources that reveal women's involvement in business, industry, commerce, and entrepreneurship across United States history.

Podcasts & Recorded Media

The following podcasts and recorded media created by the Library of Congress can be used to find out more about topics related to Hispanic Americans.

America Works
America Works, an ongoing podcast series from the Library of Congress, features the voices of contemporary workers from throughout the United States talking about their lives, their workplaces, and their on-the-job experiences. Drawn from hundreds of longer oral history interviews collected by fieldworkers for the American Folklife Center’s Occupational Folklife Project (OFP), America Works is a testament to the wisdom, wit, knowledge, and dedication of today’s working Americans. These engaging oral histories, which have are preserved in the American Folklife Center’s archive, are enriching and expanding America’s historical record.
Celebrating "One Life: Dolores Huerta"
To celebrate the landmark exhibition "One Life: Dolores Huerta," Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and poets Arlene Biala and Diana García will read work in response to the exhibition. Video recorded March 8, 2016.
La Biblioteca Podcast: Season 2!
This six-part series titled Exploring Latinx Civil Rights in the United States, which zeros in on seminal civil rights cases and events. The English-language series derives from A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States, created by Hermán Luis Chávez and María Guadalupe (Lupita) Partida, two Huntington Fellows in the Library’s Hispanic Reading Room. The guide offers an overview of 20th and 21st century American court cases, legislation and events that have affected the Hispanic community across the U.S., including Puerto Rico.
PALABRA Archive
The PALABRA Archive was begun in 1943 by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress to record audio recordings of poets and prose writers from Spain, Portugal, Latin America, the Caribbean and from the LatinX community in the United States reading from their works. This guide provides access to the PALABRA Archive, a collection of audio recordings of poets and writers from Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, the Caribbean, and from other regions with Luso-Hispanic heritage reading from their works.
StoryCorps
StoryCorps is a national project to instruct and inspire people to record each others' stories in sound. StoryCorps is modeled, in spirit and in scope, after the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s, through which oral-history interviews with everyday Americans across the country were recorded. The StoryCorps Archive will be permanently housed at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.

Story Maps

Story Maps at the Library of Congress tell the stories of the Library's collections through narrative, multimedia, and interactive maps.

Handbook of Latin American Studies Your connection to the Library of Congress Latin American collections
The Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) reports annually on the major fields of the Social Sciences and Humanities. The HLAS database has descriptions of 260,000+ publications.
History of the United States Farm Bill
The origins of agricultural legislature are accessible through the Law Library's Statutes At Large collection. Keep scrolling to learn about the first Farm Bill, and the laws that evolved over time.
If These Walls Could Talk Cândido Portinari at the Library of Congress
Four richly colored and gigantic murals by Brazilian artist Cândido Portinari welcome you into the Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress. This story recreates the experience of walking into this room where these murals set the stage for learning about a shared experience of social, economic, and cultural exchanges between the United States and Latin America.
Land of Milk & Honey
This StoryMap is part of this Borderlands Research Initiative in which the arts organization was invited to interact with the Library's digital collections and make creative connections with contemporary artists working with the U.S.-Mexico border regions. Includes images of agriculture, vendorrs, and food trucks.
Memories of the Fields Mexican Migrants in the Imperial Valley 1935-1944
In the spring of 1935, photographer Dorothea Lange arrived in the Imperial Valley of California on assignment for the Farm Security Administration. While exploring the fields, Lange would meet with an older Mexican migrant fieldworker and listen to his story. She quickly captured a photograph of his portrait as she listened to him speak about his past in Mexico and the Imperial fields.
Traveling Words and Sounds The PALABRA Archive from the Hispanic Reading Room
This story resounds with audio recordings from The PALABRA Archive, where the sounds and words in Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages spoken in the Caribbean, Latin America, Iberia and heritage locations like the United States. These words are intended to take us through an immersive journey guided by photos of those countries from our collections.
Work in Progress The American Folklife Center's Occupational Folklife Collections
In 1976, the American Folklife Center (AFC) was designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research. The AFC works with communities to document living traditional culture, while preserving the nation’s oldest and largest archive of ethnographic documentation. AFC collections correspond to a wide range of cultural traditions from around the world and the U.S., including the culture and oral histories that relate to diverse forms of labor, or "occupational folklife," the focus of this Story Map.
¡a la huelga todos! The 1942 Sugar Industry Strike in Puerto Rico
The 1942 strike by sugar industry workers marked an important moment in the island’s transition from plantation economy to modern industry. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Puerto Ricans actively organized labor unions and leveraged U.S. labor laws in pursuit of workers' rights, women's rights, public education, and healthcare. Sugar, needlework, transportation and dockyard workers were among those organizing together–and across sectors–for change.

This Month in Business History

This Month in Business History is a library guide compiled by Business Reference Specialists that highlights stories about the people, places, and events that made their mark on business history. The following entries focus on the Hispanic American contributions to business history.

Birth of Ybor City, the Cigar Capital of the World
Cigar industrialist Don Vicente Martinez Ybor contracted with the Tampa Board of Trade on October 5, 1885, to relocate his hand rolled cigar manufacturing business Ybor & Co. to what is now known as Ybor City, FL. Ybor, Haya, and other cigar industrialists founded area businesses, including: a streetcar line, grocery stores, apartments, warehouses, gas stations, an insurance company, a road paving service, and Ybor City Brewing Company. Ybor built small houses, known as "casitas" that his workers could purchase at cost as a way of increasing staff retention and improving worker satisfaction.
Cesar Chavez: Labor Leader Born, This Month in Business History
César Chávez became the charismatic labor and civil rights leader of the farm workers movement. He used networks established with those involved in the civil rights movement, as well as sympathetic church leaders, students, other organized labor unions, politicians, and liberal consumers to form a coalition that would support national strikes and consumer boycotts of farm products. Chávez adhered to the principles of nonviolent protest and action learned from Martin Luther King, Jr and India's anticolonial political activist Mohandas Gandhi.
Dolores Huerta, Labor Activist Born, This Month in Business History
Dolores Huerta is one of the most influential Hispanics of the 20th century for her work as a community organizer, labor activist, civil rights leader, and advocate for social, economic, and environmental justice. Dolores was the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farmers of America (UFW). She served as Vice President of the UFW and played a pivotal role in many of the union's accomplishments over the next forty years, at a time when Hispanics and women were not often found in leadership roles in management or unions,
United Farm Workers, This Month in Business History
Over two million farm workers serve as essential members of the agricultural sector, providing food to the tables of Americans. The United Farm Workers (UFW) became the first recognized farm workers union accepted into the AFL-CIO in August 1972. The union was formed in September 1965 when Filipino and Mexican migrant farm workers joined together to strike against the Delano-area grape growers, in order to pressure large agribusinesses to sign contracts guaranteeing better wages and working conditions.

Hispanic Americans in Business and Entrepreneurship: A Resource Guide