Social History & Social Movements

By the artist, 1987.  A complete set of six original two-color silkscreen prints, each approximately 18″ by 14″ with an image size of 13 3/4″ 10 1/2″.  All are both signed in the plate and dated 1987 and each was additionally handsigned by the artist.  The Watsonville strike was a successful strike of Mexican American frozen food workers (primarily women) in Watsonville, California, in 1985-1987, one of the few successful strikes of the 1980s.  With no initial support from the Teamsters Union, it was unique in being led  by the mostly Chicana workers who were facing significant wage cuts. “Over a period of 18 months, not one of the 1,000 Watsonville Canning strikers returned to work. This incredible unity was the key to the strikers’ ultimate victory. The strike paralyzed this rural California town. Several hundred maintained the picket line and fifty to several hundred people attended strategy meetings where they argued over the direction of the strike.”   It is appropriate that these prints are very empathetic portraits of some of these women and their children or families, with their own words about why they are striking and how they are managing to continue for so long.  The artist Andrea Kantrowitz commented that this is “a set of six silk-screen prints based on countless sketches done on the picket line during 1985 and 1986. I spent weeks with the workers, on the picket lines, in the union hall, listening to and transcribing their stories. When I first went to Watsonville, I planned to take photos and work with them in my studio. I soon found that working directly, on site, brought me much closer to the strikers and allowed me much deeper insight into the reality of their lives.” Ironically while the strikers might have won this battle (although the final resolution was, in reality, a compromise), the continuing changes to the frozen food packing industry, including relocating to Mexico after NAFTA,  meant that by the year 2000 only one plant remained open in the former  “frozen food capital of the world.” The six prints in the original set are in near fine to fine condition with some having minor creasing near the edges, not affecting the images.   #93191 less