Crops of the San Joaquin Delta

A Filipino field worker posing with a truck of peaches at Del Monte farms

Filipino agriculture workers after a long day of pruning grapes for wine

Filipinos working an asparagus field in the 1920s Delta region

The most common crops with Filipino workers were asparagus, celery and grapes. Other crops with large Filipino work forces were lettuce, sugar beets, tomatoes, peaches, apples, berries, melon, hops and celery. As of 1930, 80 percent of the asparagus workforce was Filipino. Filipinos also made up 14 percent of the California agricultural labor force.

Agricultural work for Filipinos, or Pinoys, was usually done under contract at piecemeal. This required long days, usually 10 hours, for 26 days of the month without Sundays or holidays off. Working conditions were not ideal for the workers as they had no toilets, clean drinking water, and exposure to pesticides and infectious disease, all without health benefits. Peat dust was a common irritant for many of the workers as it is caused itching on the skin and doctors frequently had to swab it out of the worker’s throats.