Fig 6. Anonymous. “Viva la Huelga!” Aztec Eagle in favor of the sun’s rays, associating her subjects – essential and undocumented workers – with traits of Aztec culture that emphasized caring, nurturing, and growing nourishment for the common good. This is not to suggest that the UFW was a warlike organization. They, too, understood the need to appeal to everyday Americans whose consumption fueled the agricultural industry that abused farmworkers. Some of their posters were aimed less at inspiring farm labor to rise against their oppressors and more at humanizing farmworkers as part of their campaign to build leverage through consumer boycotts. To do so, their designs turned to portraiture, as can be seen in the 1978 Boycott Lettuce & Grapes poster (Fig. 7). Here a vibrant sun and Aztec Eagle are backgrounded, surrounded by the rallying “Si Se Puede – It Can Be Done.” The labor of farmworkers is depicted among rows of crops that, perhaps analogousto the sun’s rays, radiate outward in a play on perspective. The foreground of the poster depicts a group of farmworkers, young and old, some with their children. The bottom of the poster urges consumers to “Boycott lettuce and grapes.” The farmworkers’ arduous labor in the unforgiving yet vital sun is undertaken in the service of the nation’s food supply. The worn, wrinkled faces of elders, the sun-scorched faces of youngsters, and the women holding their 20
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