1. La Voz Mexicana. Wisconsin: Obreros Unidos. 1965-1969.Notes: The news publication of Obreros Unidos, the migrant farm workers’ union active in Waushara, Marquette and Portage counties of Wisconsin in the 1960s; edited by David Giffey; a full run of the paper has been deposited with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, located in Madison, Wisconsin.
  1. Berry-Caban, Cristobal S. Hispanics in Wisconsin: A Bibliography of Resource Materials = Hispanos en Wisconsin: Una bibliografia de materiales de recurso. Sarah H. Cooper; Donna J. Sereda, and Dale E. Treleven, with the assistance of. Madison, Wis.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin; 1981. 258 p. Notes: “A unique, comprehensively indexed guide to manuscript and archival materials, unpublished academic papers and reports, and newspaper and journal articles.”–back cover. Each entry identifies from where the item can be borrowed. Many entries are related to labor; especially see under “Employment and Income”, “Labor Unions”, “Migrant Labor”, “Wisconsin, State of” (for governmental reports), “Obreros Unidos” (an independent Wisconsin migrant farmworker union), and also specific geographical names.
  1. Brandeis, Elizabeth. Migrant Children and Child Labor Laws. [Madison, Wis.]: Governor’s Commission on Human Rights; 1959; [WI GoDocs #] GoRi.2:M5/5b. 9 p. Notes: Her statement. Source: Hispanics in Wisconsin: A Bibliography, p. 253.
  1. Brandeis, Elizabeth. “The Migrant Labor Problem in Wisconsin”. IN: Somers, Gerald G., editor. Labor, Management and Social Policy: Essays in the John R. Commons Tradition. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press; 1963; pp. 197-230. Notes: Source: Hispanics in Wisconsin: A Bibliography, p. 251.
  1. Migrant Labor Problem in Wisconsin: An Essay. Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin Governor’s Commission on Human Rights; 1962. 52 p.
  1. Erenburg, Mark. “Obreros Unidos in Wisconsin”. Monthly Labor Review. 1968; 91(6):17-23.
  2. 7. Flores, Edmundo. “Los braceros mexicanos en Wisconsin” [Mexican Migratory Labor in Wisconsin]. El Trimestre Economico. 1950 (January/March); 17 (1):23-80. Notes: Source: Hispanics in Wisconsin: A Bibliography, p. 257.
  1. Flores, Edmundo. “Mexican Migratory Labor in Wisconsin: A Study of the War Food Administration Program for the Use of Mexican Agricultural Workers During 1945, in the State of Wisconsin” ; 1947. Notes: Master’s thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1947. 63 leaves.
  1. Flores, Ness and Hannigan, Daniel. Report on Migratory Labor in Wisconsin. Madison, Wis.: Governor’s Committee on Migratory Labor; 1977. 103 p. Notes: WI docs. no.: Go Mig.1:1977. A report prepared by Ness Flores and Daniel Hannigan and submitted to the governor by the Governor’s Committee on Migratory Labor.
  1. Huber, Peter John. “Migratory Agricultural Workers in Wisconsin”; 1967.Notes: Master’s thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1967. 135 leaves. Concentrating on the period from World War II to the early-1960s, the author takes a close look at the 20,000 or so out-of-state migrant farmworkers who each year help plant and harvest crops in Wisconsin. Besides detailing the contributions to the agricultural economy of Wisconsin by the migrant farmworkers, Huber carefully describes the very difficult working and living conditions faced by the migrant farmworkers. He also makes extensive use of two local papers, the Door County Advocate and the Waushara Argus, to look at the relations through the years between the migrant farmworkers and the Wisconsin communities within which they came to work.
  1. Martin, Philip L. “Harvest Mechanization and Agricultural Trade Unionism: Obreros Unidos in Wisconsin”. Labor Law Journal. 1977; 28(3):166-173. Notes: Source: Hispanics in Wisconsin: A Bibliography, p. 217.
  1. Provinzano, James. “Chicano Migrant Farm Workers in a Rural Wisconsin County”; 1971.Notes: Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1971. 154 p. An anthropological look at the social structure networks among the Chicano migrant farm workers in a large, rural, central Wisconsin county, which is only identified as “Centre County” in this dissertation. One can speculate, however, that Portage County, Wisconsin, is the county involved here because the migrant farm workers studied were almost exclusively involved with harvesting cucumbers for many nearby canneries and were involved with organizing into a labor union at the time the author was doing his research. For a fuller abstract, see Dissertation Abstracts International, 1972, 32/08, p. 4374-B.
  1. Rodrigues, Marc Simon. “Cristaleno Consciousness: Mexican-American Activism beween Crystal City, Texas, and Wisconsin, 1963-80”. In: Mansbridge, Jane and Morris, Aldon, editors. Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press; 2001; pp. 146-169. Notes: This article looks at how Texas Mexican migrant farm workers from the area around Crystal City, Texas, who came every year to Wisconsin for seasonal agricultural work, were influenced by the “oppositional consciousness” traditions of the Wisconsin labor movement.
  1. Rodriguez, Marc S. “Migrants and Citizens: Mexican American Migrant Workers and the War on Poverty in an American City”. IN: Rodriguez, Marc S., editor. Repositioning North American Migration History: New Directions in Modern Continental Migration, Citizenship, and Community. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press; 2004; pp. 328-351.
  1. Rodriguez, Marc Simon. “Obreros Unidos: Migration, Migrant Farm Worker Activism, and the Chicano Movement in Wisconsin and Texas, 1950-1980”; 2000. Notes: Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 2000. 326 p.
  2. “Obreros Unidos: Migration, Migrant Farm Worker Activism, and the Chicano Movement in Wisconsin and Texas, 1950-1980”; 2001. Notes: Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 2001. 326 p. [Available at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, in their book collection, at call number HD5856.W6/R63/2000]; OCLC 46705831.
  1. Salas, Jesus. “Reflections on Urban Life”. IN: Wisniewski, Richard. Teaching About Life in the City. Washington, D.C.: National Council for the Social Studies; 1972; pp. 61-73. Notes: Source: Hispanics in Wisconsin: A Bibliography, p. 218.
  1. Salas, Jesus and Giffey, David. Lucha por la justicia: Movimiento de los trabajadores migrantes en Wisconsin = Struggle for Justice: The Migrant Farm Worker Labor Movement in Wisconsin. David Giffey, Photos by. Madison, Wis.: Wisconsin Labor History Society; 1998. 15 p. Notes: During the 1960s, in the first sustained attempt to form a migrant farm-worker union in the Great Lakes region, farm workers in the Central Sands area of Wisconsin formed an independent labor union, Obreros Unidos (United Workers), to represent their interests. The history of this dramatic grassroots effort is told in a travelling exhibit sponsored by the Wisconsin Labor History Society as part of their celebration of the 1998 sesquicentennial of the statehood of Wisconsin; the exhibit includes 110 black-and-white photographs and text written by participants in the movement, including Obreros Unidos founder Jesus Salas and union photography/journalist David Giffey To and this twenty-page booklet was prepared to accompany a travelling photo exhibit telling the history of this union. The exhibit includes 110 , to describe in detail this first sustained attempt to form a migrant farm-worker union in the Great Lakes Region; this accompanying booklet contains an abbreviated bi-lingual text in Spanish and English, as well as twenty of the photographs from the exhibit.A high-quality PDF of the complete text of this booklet is available in the website of the Wisconsin Labor History Society at the following URL: http://wisconsinlaborhistory.org Lucha-GiffeyProject.pdf.

The exhibit has been displayed at dozens of locations in Wisconsin, including community centers, campuses, churches, museums, and galleries. It continues to be available for exhibitions of one month or less for a $250 installation/rental fee, plus travel expenses (depending on location). For information about the availability of the exhibit, contact David Giffey (Arena, WI) by telephone at 608/753-2199 or by e-mail at barnowl@mhtc.net.

Struggle for Justice: The Migrant Farm Worker Labor Movement in Wisconsin is a photo-journalistic account of dramatic grass roots efforts among farm workers to organize an independent labor union, Obreros Unidos (United Workers), in Central Wisconsin during the 1960s. Using historic photographs and text written by participants in the movement, Lucha por la Justicia (Struggle for Justice) describes in detail the first sustained attempt to form a migrant farm-worker union in the Great Lakes Region. Co-authored by Obreros Unidos founder Jesus Salas and union photographer/journalist David Giffey, the Struggle for Justice exhibit includes 110 black-and-white photographs, Spanish and English text blocks, and supplementary information such as maps and news stories. A copy of the Struggle for Justice booklet may be downloaded here in PDF format. The booklet contains an abbreviated bi-lingual text and 20 photos from the exhibit. The Struggle for Justice project was sponsored in 1998 by Wisconsin Labor History Society and funded in part by the Wisconsin Humanities Council with support from the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Commission. Co-sponsors providing exhibition sites included: American Federation of Teachers, Local 212, Milwaukee Area Technical College; Bayland; Brown County Library; Fiesta Mexicana, Milwaukee; Latino Arts, Inc.; La Crosse County Historical Society; Madison Area Technical College Student Life Office and Minority Student Affairs; Madison Urban Ministry; MEChA, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, UW-Madison; Milwaukee Public Library; South Central Federation of Labor; State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Superior Public Library; United Community Center, Milwaukee; UW-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library; United Migrant Opportunities Services, Inc.; UW-Green Bay Center for History and Social Change; UW-Stevens Point History Department; Wisconsin Conference of Churches Migrant Ministry Ecumenical Partnership; and Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

  1. Shannon, Lyle W. “False Assumptions About the Determinants of Mexican-American and Negro Economic Absorption”. Sociology Quarterly. 1975; 16(1):3-15.
  1. Shannon, Lyle W. and McKim, Judith L. “Attitudes Toward Education and the Absorption of Immigrant Mexican-Americans and Negroes in Racine”. Education and Urban Society. 1974 May; 6(3):333-354.
  1. “Mexican American, Negro, and Anglo Improvement in Labor Force Status Between 1960 and 1970 in a Midwestern Community”. Social Science Quarterly. 1974 Jun; 55(1):91-111. Notes: See Sociological Abstracts, item 75H6026 for an abstract of this article.
  1. Valdes, Dennis Nodin. Al Norte: Agricultural Workers in the Great Lakes Region, 1917-1970. 1st ed. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press; 1991. 305 p. (Mexican American Monographs; no. 13). Notes: A social history of Latino migrant farmworkers, including their efforts to form labor organizations, throughout the upper Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin) from their entry into the region during World War I up to 1970.
  1. Wells, Miriam June. “From Field to Foundry: Mexican American Adaptive Strategies in a Small Wisconsin Town”; 1975. Notes: Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975. 343 p. Dissertation Abstracts International, 1976 36(9):6179-A.
  1. Wisconsin. Department of Public Welfare. “Our Responsibility to Migratory Workers”. Wisconsin Welfare. 1953 Dec; XII:13-18. Notes: Source: Hispanics in Wisconsin: A Bibliography, p. 252.
  1. Wisconsin. Governor’s Commission on Human Rights. Education on the Move: Report of a 1960 and 1961 Demonstration Summer School for Migrant Children in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Madison, Wis.; 1960; [WI GoDocs #] GoMig.2:M3/1-2. 2 v. Notes: Source: Hispanics in Wisconsin: A Bibliography, p. 252.
  1. Zophy, Jonathan W. “Invisible People: Blacks and Mexican-Americans”. IN: Neuenschwander, John A., editor. Kenosha County in the Twentieth Century: A Topical History. Kenosha, Wis.: Kenosha County Bicentennial Commission; 1976; pp. 51-81. Notes: A brief look at the history of two of the largest racial minority groups in Kenosha County from 1900 until about 1965; especially see p. 60-63 for discussion (and two photographs) of Kenosha’s African-American and Hispanic labor leaders, especially those involved with United Auto Workers Local 72.