Félix Zapata
Félix Zapata
Félix Zapata holding a candle at the Church of the Epiphany in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, 1966. Photo by Emmon Clarke.
Félix Zapata was born in Mexico and moved to Delano with his family on January 1966 from Texas, where he grew up working at the cotton compress. In Delano, he and his family stayed with his father-in-law, Eduardo Campos. Campos took part in the Delano strike from the start and involved Zapata as well. “We were planning to work in order to get enough money to go back to Texas,” he said in an article in the newspaper El Malcriado. “But we couldn’t scab, so we joined the strike the next day.”
Félix Zapata thanking the Union during a Friday night meeting at Negrito Hall, Delano, 1966
Félix Zapata thanks the Union for helping him repair his car during a Friday night meeting at Negrito Hall in Delano, California in 1966. Socorro Méndez and Asunción Zapata are visible in the foreground. At this Friday meeting, El Teatro Campesino performed “La muerte no es esquirol” (Death is not a scab).
Zapata had his car repaired at the auto repair center offered by the union. The auto repair center, alongside a drugstore, credit union, auto parts store, gasoline service station, medical clinic, and discount store were part of the Farm Worker Co-op. The Co-op, which was a store owned by the customers, sold high-quality goods that customers wanted and offered services cheaper than competitors. The idea to have a co-op came about after farm workers realized that they could buy good quality motor oil if they bought it together in bulk.
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