Set against the volatile politics of a small California farm town, Watsonville on Strike (1989) captures the historic 18-month strike of predominantly Mexican immigrant women cannery workers. Jon Silver's powerful documentary offers an extraordinary window into how these longtime frozen-food workers fought both aggressive corporate wage cuts and a Teamsters union leadership too distant — and too monolingual — to represent them. Jump Cut praised the film's raw, reflexive style, capturing community solidarity, rank-and-file organizing, and grassroots resistance from the inside. Decades later, the film endures as a defining record of Chicana and immigrant labor history — and of the women who led it.

“This superb documentary showing the unvarnished facts of a long, hard-fought labor battle–workers united, workers divided, the high and low points–may be the best introduction yet available to the realities of class struggle as it exists today.”
–Jessica Mitford, Author

“Aqui está nuestra historia”
–Reyna Guzman, Cannery Worker

• Silver Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival, 1990
• Documentary Festival of New York, 1990
* Watsonville Film Festival, 2026