Description
This collection of photographs, slides, contact sheets, and negatives by United Farm Workers (UFW) staff photographer Gayanne
Fietinghoff documents the work and home lives of California's Central Valley farmworkers from 1972 to 1977. While employed
by the UFW from 1972 to 1975, Fietinghoff trained her lens on the struggles of farmworkers, who were primarily Mexican American
and Filipino American, working in the fields and participating in UFW activities and events. Fietinghoff captured UFW boycotts,
strikes, rallies, demonstrations, marches, clashes with Teamsters, arrests by law enforcement, worker camps, meetings and
campaigns. Fietinghoff photographed many of the leaders and supporters of the UFW, including Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta,
Philip Vera Cruz, and others. This collection also contains Fietinghoff's output from a 1977 personal project, which took
her on a road trip through the Central Valley photographing the living and working conditions of farmworkers, with a focus
on women and their families.
Background
Gayanne Fietinghoff was a photographer who worked for the UFW and its unofficial newspaper, El Macriado, from 1972 to 1975. During this period she was asked by Bill Kircher, AFL-CIO liasion to the UFW, to document the 1973-1974
strikes of the Teamsters. In 1977 she embarked on a personal project called Farm Worker Life and Conditions, photographing
Central Valley farmworkers in the fields and at home. Fietinghoff also worked on sound recording for farmworker-related documentaries,
including her partner Rick Tejada-Flores's 1973 film,
¡Si Se Puede!.