Marcia Brooks joined the march from Delano to Sacramento in the spring of 1966 and after that started working full-time for the NFWA. She worked at El Malcriado’s office, the union’s newspaper that was used as an informational and organizing tool for both farmworkers and boycott supporters, from early 1966 until 1969, with short periods working elsewhere as César’s secretary or at the boycott in Miami.

Brooks, Mary Murphy, Doug Adair, and Bill Esher shared the duties of writer, editor, layout artist, photographer, salesperson, mailroom organizer, delivery folk, office manager, and every other job that publishing a newspaper entails. For a short period in 1969 Brooks was the only person working on the paper and she put out three or four issues. She had also been taking photographs together with Chris “Fats” Sánchez under the name of Cris Sánchez, especially of the lettuce strike in Coachella.