Short-Handled Hoe

Known to agricultural workers as el cortito, “the short one,” or el brazo del diablo, “the devil’s arm,” the short-handled hoe was once a common tool in California’s sugar beet and lettuce fields. Unlike a long-handled hoe, which can be used while standing, the short-handled hoe was only 18 or 24 inches long. This forced workers to bend over the rows for their entire 10 to 12 hour shift. The labor was brutal, and often led to chronic back injuries. Use of the short-handled hoe was especially harmful to children, whose bones were still forming.

Though California growers insisted the short-handled hoe was necessary to avoid damage to plants, the tool was not used in most other states. Many workers suspected that the short-handled hoe was meant to be degrading and make supervision easy: anyone standing up was not working.

The early 1970s was a critical juncture in the struggle to improve working conditions for the mostly Latino farm laborers in California. The United Farm Workers (UFW), under the leadership of César Chávez, had successfully forced grape growers to recognize the union as a collective bargaining unit, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed, setting mandatory standards and a process for enforcement. Within this context, California Rural Legal Assistance, a nonprofit advocacy and legal services organization, compiled evidence of the debilitating damage done by the short-handled hoe and filed suit against the state.

After five years of legal wrangling and a profound political shift, the issue would make it to the California Supreme Court. Eventually the short-handled hoe was banned. Chávez, who was himself a victim of el cortito and played a pivotal role in its prohibition, kept this short-handled hoe in his office as a reminder of what the farmworkers had endured, and what they had achieved. Sí, se puede.