"[3] Senator Harris’ xenophobic and racist statements reflect popular sentiments of the local communities in 1928 that took issue not with the employment of Mexican immigrants, but with the fact that many of these laborers were settling down in the Imperial Valley area.
Cantaloupe pickers had three main demands for their employers: "better housing conditions, safeguards against defaulting contractors, and proper insurance under the Workmen’s Compensation Act".
[5] With the grievances mounting and fervent anti-immigration rhetoric in the American discourse, many Mexicans sought labor organization as a solution.
[6] The union sought a remedy to their grievances, so on May 3, 1928, "they appealed to the Chambers of Commerce in the Valley to act as intermediaries in adjusting their complaints",[5] but it was to no avail.
According to scholars, there does not seem to have been any pre-planning of the strike by the union, but was a spawned by spontaneous actions of dissatisfied workers that decided to take a stand.
Employers feared the loss of profit because of the limited time span of harvesting season, so they enlisted the help of local law enforcement.
[9] The Los Angeles Times reported that at least forty eight Mexicans had been arrested by May 10 and the police had shut down pool halls, after another incident involving the ever entertaining and horrible Sheriff Gillett.
The dawn of the Great Depression, "created a disastrous drop in wage rates and caused the introduction of hundreds of thousands of Anglo workers into the field-labor market".
[13] Despite the tragedy that befell many of these workers, many scholars suggest that the spontaneous actions of these cantaloupe pickers helped spur other agricultural strikes in California in the 1930s.