The lettuce monster : a history of state violence, carceral geography and industrial agriculture in the Salinas Valley

Abstract

This dissertation is a descriptive account of state violence in the Salinas Valley, a rural agricultural area on California’s Central Coast, from the 1930s to the 2010s. Chapter 1 recounts the 1934 Filipino lettuce strike and the 1936 Dust Bowl migrant strike to track how valley law enforcement departments expanded in man- and fire-power, and instituted surveillance tactics that were advanced for their time. It also examines how agribusiness leaders funded and directed strike suppression activities, and facilitated law enforcement’s acquisition of tear gas and long-range guns. These events contributed to making Salinas Valley law enforcement one of the most armed and organized forces in the nation by the end of the 1930s. Chapter 2 highlights valley law enforcement’s partnerships with federal and military agencies during World War II, as well as agribusiness’s use of Bracero and Prisoner of War labor. This chapter argues that the Salinas Valley developed a carceral geography that enabled high levels of agricultural production during the war. Chapter 3 follows the transformation of the carceral geography to include field and factory worksites, as undocumented immigrants were housed in labor camps resembling prison camps and were surveilled by growers’ private security guards, regional Border Patrol agents, and United Farm Workers strikers. Undocumented immigrants constituted a marginalized workforce that was exploited and faced dangerous work and living conditions into the 1980s. Formerly incarcerated people also form part of this workforce, and are subject to hyper-surveillance inside agricultural packing factories, and in public spaces subject to city ordinances and state probation laws. Chapter 4 examines Salinas Valley law enforcement’s increased militarization post-9/11, which was facilitated by the expansion of the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program and state and federal funding. A culture of impunity in the valley enabled law enforcement to engage in a series of unethical policing practices and financial scams, ultimately escalating to a spate of police shootings from 2014 to 2019. This dissertation ends considering how current pandemic-related measures affect policing and surveillance in the valley.American Studie