California Grape Boycott

In response to “Effective Protest Doesn’t Require a Majority,” by Cesar Chavez (Commentary, Jan. 2):

The grape boycott has been very effective in Orange County. The constant supporters who have given so much of their time and energy have been Chicano college and university students . However, interestingly enough, those people who were turned away from stores were not always Latinos, but the more affluent, upper-middle-class Anglos from areas such as Irvine, Laguna Beach and Newport Beach. In the many Saturdays and Sundays we spent educating people about the dangers of pesticides, we found that the people driving the more expensive cars and wearing the designer clothes were also more likely to listen and ask for more information.

The grape boycott is working. I visited Delano and surrounding areas in November and saw fields full of grapes rotting on the vines. The cold storage sheds were full to capacity.

Chavez is right: “The rich have money, but the poor have time.” May I also add, that there are more poor and if one gets tired of carrying a sign or of distributing the leaflets, there’s another and another to take his/her place on the line. We will persevere.

ENRIQUETA LOPEZ RAMOS

Santa Ana