Awesome Historical Orange County-Needs-Cheap-Mexican-Labor Quote of the Week!


“In the matter of picking citrus fruits, the writer has tried repeatedly to use white men and Japanese. Our experience shows us that the white man does not like the tedious routine work of picking and will promptly leave this for any other job available, even at smaller wages. The Mexican, by nature, seems to be peculiarly adapted to this class of work. He is patient, and apparently enjoys the work itself. Transient white labor in California will only take picking jobs when there is absolutely nothing else in sight and with a view of holding it only long enough to secure a few meals or a job at some other occupation.”

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–J.A. Prizer, manager of the Placentia Orange Growers Association, in a prepared statement given to Congress in 1928, during hearings in which Orange County citrus growers were arguing for more Mexican workers. Eight years later, during the 1936 Citrus War, Prizer would tell local newspapers that the growers didn't need Mexican workers anymore. “We are finding that the American boys and men can pick oranges as well
as their fathers did some 30 years ago and as well as any other pickers
we have had in recent years,” he would say then. A month later, the strike was over, as OC's citrus crop was rotting on the tree.

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