Onion Strike During the year 1979 a group of Mexican American farm workers organized a strike to protest poor wages and bad working conditions in Raymondville, Texas. Raymondville was known for its agricultural area and it was also known as the onion capital of the world. Mexican Americans realized they were being treated poorly and that they were Americans as well and had the exact same rights as the whites who were living at Raymondville. Juanita Valdez was one of the leaders in charge of the onion strike. She thinks there was change in the community and that they were successful with the strike because it marked the birth of a political movement. The people from Raymondville knew they needed change in their life’s and had to do something about it so they organized strikes that either helped Raymondville for the better or for the worse.
The strikes affected the people from Raymondville in the long run instead of helping them. The leaders who organized the strikes were Tony Andrea and Juanita Valdez and they believe the strike was won in their favor, but many local residents such as Thomas Rains a former Raymondville school board member stated “The strike crippled the onion business that fueled much of the local economy.” Willacy County used to be the main county as far as onions are concerned and it was all lost after the onion strikes protest. Instead of bringing progress towards the community it decreased job opportunities to Mexican Americans. As of result of protesting against the onion agriculture industry many Mexicans Americans ended without a job and had to migrate and leave Raymondville behind. This strike instead of helping the city ruined its economy on some type of way and caused many jobs to disappear. (Valle) As of result of Mexican Americans protesting the growers still had to continue their production of onions, so they would bring workers from other places to work for them and offered them better pay than the previous Mexican Americans who protested against them. Othal Brand, who crushed the strikes by purchasing many of the onion fields and having many of the strikers jailed. By the end, thirty strikers and leaders were arrested. The strikers lost the battle because they were replaced fired, jailed, and some were also evicted from their homes. (Rousers)
The Onion Strike was during the year 1979 and till this day Raymondville is still affected by this this event. Job opportunities are not available to the residents from the city. Instead of the city growing each year it seems the growth rate is remaining the same. According to the United States Census Raymondville has a population of 11,117. The population was 9,733 during the 2000 census meaning Raymondville has only grown by a few thousand people in the last 13 years. Meanwhile the city of McAllen has a population of 136,639 being only less than an hour apart in distance. The United States has 6.30% of Unemployment Rate as of Raymondville it is above average having 10.60% concluding that there aren’t much opportunities at this area. The average income for a household in Raymondville is below average as well which is 24,713$. The median amount per family is 34,264$, and having a job growth of 1.43 %.(Census) Walmart is one of most successful companies in the United States having more than 5,000 stores nationwide. Walmart was recently affected by the poor economy Raymondville is struggling with, and having to close one of their stores in that area. The Walmart store recently closed its doors at the beginning of this year leaving more than 150 people unemployed, and now all the residents from this city have is a few local store where they can purchase groceries from, or they can drive 30 minutes to the nearest Walmart. Raymondville does not have much jobs to offer forcing residents to go work somewhere out of the area in order to get a stable income.
Another big reason why Raymondville hasn’t grown to become a big city like McAllen or Brownsville is because many of the youth does not pursue going to college. The only way Raymondville will grow in population and job wise is if its own people make a difference. The Raymondville Independent school district has a 75% graduation rate which is lower than the average in the state of Texas which is at an 83%. Leo Gonzalez has been a resident for Raymondville for the past three years and he stated in an interview with the Valley News "You've got a lot of kids here that have a really high I.Q. TMs, that are not being exploited for their intelligence and given opportunities." Gonzalez thinks that the students need to be pushed to achieve higher education something the city has been lacking. Raymondville has been ranked one of the cities with the highest poverty levels in the nation. The current dropout rate is a little over 50 percent in the county. Gonzalez also stated that “Willacy County has lagged in development for the past 20 years, while Cameron County and Hidalgo County continue to progress.” (Barrera) During the 1970’s education was not pushed to Mexican American kids either, this is why Raymondville hasn’t grown as well. It is important to push for the youth to strive for college because they are the future of the city.
The Onion Strike leaders may believe they won because they proved that Mexican Americans have a voice also, but in reality they were not successful in the way that they affected the city of Raymondville by getting rid of the successful agricultural business the city had. The city has not grown as much as it should of, and the job opportunities remain the same very low. Hopefully Raymondville grows to become a larger city and the jobs and education can grow to