A work in progress. As part of a personal exploration into the generational legacy of my matriarchal family’s history, especially my grandmother's work in a California cannery during the 1940s, I read historian Vicki L. Ruiz's "Cannery Women Cannery Lives." It was striking to read that women with brown skin were prohibited from handling fruit during its final packing stage due to public image concerns held by the canning company. Despite the challenges of ethnic discrimination and inequality, Mexican women, like my grandmother, and other women of color created a cannery culture, socializing, sharing gender-specific concerns and playing a pivotal role in unionization within the canneries. That era's anti-immigrant sentiment and labor activism reflect contemporary dialogues on race, immigration, and labor rights.

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Herrera, Esther. My Mother’s Work in the Cannery (printed on dishtowels), 2024

Ruiz, Vicki L. Cannery Women Cannery Lives: Mexican women, unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry 1930-1950. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1987.