Hidden in the Fields: Invisible Agricultural Child Labor in the American Southwest and the Limits of Citizenship

Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez explains how labor laws helped define the modern boundaries of childhood and citizenship for both internationally and domestically migrant Latinx children working on American farms. Despite the child labor ban supposedly implemented in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act and later laws, legal loopholes have allowed migrant Latinx children to continue to work on American farms today and have limited their access to education. Padilla-Rodríguez explains how advocates fought to enact social welfare initiatives for farmworking children along their migratory route, while teachers and women UFW organizers pursued legislative channels to try to get stricter child labor protections, and special educational and childcare programs created for migrant youth. Padilla-Rodríguez is a Ph.D. candidate in the Columbia University Department of History and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Latinx Research Center. Related Collections Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee Records Dolores Huerta Papers Michigan Farm Worker Ministry Coalition Records National Farm Workers Association Records National Farm Worker Ministry Records Ronald B. Taylor Papers UFW Organizing Committee (UFWOC) Records UFW Office of the President: Cesar Chavez Records UFW Texas Records Episode Credits Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English Interviewer: Dan Golodner Interviewee: Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez Sound: Troy Eller English With support from the Reuther Podcast Collective: Bart Bealmear, Elizabeth Clemens, Meghan Courtney, Troy Eller English, Dan Golodner, and Paul Neirink