Primary Sources - United Farm Workers - Research Guide

Online primary sources

National Farm Worker Ministry: Mobilizing Support for Migrant Workers, 1939-1985 This link opens in a new window
This collection reproduces correspondence, reports, speeches, minutes and other materials relating to the farm workers, poverty programs, Public Law 78, Braceros, labor camps, the United Farm Workers Union and the Delano Grape Strike. [1965-1980]

Welga Digital Archive
Includes oral histories and other primary sources relating to the Filipino American experience; some materials relate to the United Farm Workers.
Farmworker Movement Documentation Project
Primary source accounts by the UFW volunteers who built the movement

United Farm Workers - Microfilm Collections

Microfilm allows libraries to have filmed copies of materials we might not otherwise have, due to space considerations. Materials that have been microfilmed may include one-of-a-kind manuscript collections, newspapers, or large collections of books or documents.

Microfilm must be read on a microfilm reader; these machines are usually available at the appropriate campus library. You should be able to make photocopies and sometimes can make digital scans, depending on the machine.

Use secondary sources to narrow down your topic and identify dates, names of people and organizations, and types of sources. If the collection has a guide, use it to identify which rolls of film you need to view.

Please note: advance appointments must be made to use microfilm.

Click on the titles of the collections to view the UC Library Search record (including the call number) of each item.

Collections of the United Farm Workers of America. Series 1, Office files of the President
(Microfilm) Collection includes: executive correspondence and meeting minutes, as well organizer's reports from the field, testimony and speeches, boycott flyers, letters from supporters and autograph seekers, songs, and prayers, communications between Chavez and his organizers, the Kennedy's, the Church hierarchy, civil rights leaders, union leaders, and Chicano militants.

See link to Guide below.
Guide to Series 1, Office files of the President
Index to the Microfilm set.
Collections of the United Farm Workers of America Series 2, Papers of the United Farm Workers of America Work Department, 1969-1975
(Microfilm) Correspondence, clippings, memoranda, reports, financial papers, speeches, pamphlets, minutes, and other materials relating to the United Farm Workers Work Department.

See link to Guide, below.
Guide to Series 2: Papers of the United Farm Workers of America Work Department
An Index to the Microfilm Edition.
Papers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, 1959-1966
Microfilm. See link to Guide, below.
Guide to the Papers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, 1959-1966
FBI File: Cesar Chavez

Finding Primary Sources - Overview

To find primary sources you may search:

Catalogs: OskiCat and MELVYL
Article Databases
Primary Source databases provided by the Library
Internet

For more information, see the Library's Guide to Finding Historical Primary Source s

Searching the Catalogs for Primary Sources

Search OskiCat for primary sources using keywords and adding terms that denote primary sources, such as:

-correspondence
-sources
-diaries
-personal narratives
-interviews
-speeches
-documents
-archives
-newspapers

Examples:

united farm worker* interviews
united farm worker* periodicals
migrant agricultural labor* sources

Also search by author: united farm workers
author: chavez cesar
etc.

Finding DVDs and videos

Chicano Studies/Labor-related videos and DVDs at the Media Resources Center

Secondary menu

United Farm Workers - Research Guide: Primary Sources

Online primary sources

United Farm Workers - Microfilm Collections

Finding Primary Sources - Overview

Searching the Catalogs for Primary Sources

Finding DVDs and videos