California State University at Long Beach Oral History Resource Center study of women defense plant workers, 1979-1983.

The women who tell their stories in this extraordinary oral history worked in World War II defense plants.

Vicki L. Ruiz provides the first full study of Mexican-American women in the 20th century, in a narrative enhanced by interviews and personal stories that capture a vivid sense of the Mexicana experience in the United States. Beginning with the first wave of women crossing the border early this century, Ruiz reveals the struggles they have faced, the communities they have built, and also highlights the various forms of political protest they have initiated. What emerges from the book is a portrait of a distinctive culture in America that has slowly gathered strength in the last 95 years.

An anniversary edition of the first full study of Mexican American women in the twentieth century, with new preface

This dramatic and turbulent history of UCAPAWA is a major contribution to the new labor history in its carefully documented account of minority women controlling their union and regulating their working lives.