El Picket Sign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGaCEmIX2vY “El Picket Sign” was written by Luis Valdez (American playwright, writer, and film director) and it expressed the reality of the strikers in the fields, like those of Coachella. The narrator talks about being part of the union and the on-going struggle of farm workers in the United States. As I heard the song I realized that Valdez makes a reference to the Zaninovich Brothers (growers in Delano) by employing the play on words for “bitches” and connects the farm workers to two radical Mexican political leaders, Benito Juarez and Emiliano Zapata. The song is in Spanish but here is a translation: The picket sign, the picket sign I carry it all day with me The picket sign, the picket sign With me throughout my life. From Texas to California, farm workers are fighting From Texas to California, farm workers are fighting And the growers a’-cryin, ‘a-cryin’, from the strike they’re knuckling under. A cousin of mine was out irrigating ditches A cousin of mine was out irrigating ditches On one day with Pagarulo, the next with Zaninoviches. The picket sign, the picket sign… There are some who don’t understand though favored with advice, There are some who don’t understand though favored with advice The strike is good for everybody but some play the stupid fool They tell me I’m too headstrong, yell too much and incite people They tell me I am too headstrong, yell too much and incite people But Juarez was my uncle, my father-in-law, Zapata The picket sign, the picket sign… And now organizing the workers in all of the fields And now organizing the workers in all of the fields Because some only eat tortillas with nothing else but chiles We’ve been many years, fighting in this strike We’ve been many years, fighting in this strike One grower bit the dust, another’s a granddaddy The picket sign, the picket sign…