Handheld Hoe (smaller)

A handheld hoe that was owned and used by Paul "Skippy" Tabalan DeOcampo. Handheld weeders and hoes required laborers to stoop very low while working causing chronic back pain and injuries. Protests against handheld tools began in the 1920s and continued throughout the 1970s. California became the first state to ban handheld tools in January of 1975 as a direct result of protests led by the United Farm Workers (UFW).

Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo-Lechtenberg and Veronica Hernandez

Watsonville is in the Heart (WIITH) is a community-driven public history initiative to preserve and uplift stories of Filipino migration and labor in the city of Watsonville and greater Pajaro Valley. Images were donated and digitally reproduced from private collections of individuals and families. Copyright remains with original owners. All images included herein are intended for personal or educational use only. Any reproduction, redistribution, publication, or other use, by any means, without prior written permission is prohibited. Please note that the images on this website are not included at their full resolution. For permission to publish or reproduce and for higher resolution files, please contact the project director at wiith@ucsc.edu. If you are the rightful copyright holder of this item and its use online constitutes an infringement of your copyright, please contact the project director to discuss its removal from the archive.

More information on the short handled hoe:

• Oakland Museum of California - Object of the Week: Short-Handled Hoe 
• Douglas L. Murray, "The Abolition of El Cortito, the Short-Handled Hoe: A Case Study in Social Conflict and State Policy in California Agriculture," Social Problem 30, no. 1 (1982): 26-39. 

17.5 inches

Physical Object

DEO.2021.7

Hoe