Call Me Juan is a story of murder, love and personal revelation. Jake Rodgers is a man who is inserted into a public display of injustice and attempts to correct it, but his efforts end up costing him everything he has. In the process he is forced to come to terms with a personal truth that he had suppressed since childhood and is reborn as a result. This story is based on an actual incident. While the characters of the story are created, some are based on real life figures of the period; the circumstances of the story are factual. In 1933 an estimated 25,000 destitute migrant workers, mostly of Mexican heritage, set in motion one of America's greatest agricultural strikes. Abandoned by mainstream labor organizations, the workers accepted the leadership of the Cannery and Agriculture Workers Industrial Union. The union's alleged communist affiliation sparked a tremendous backlash from conservative groups throughout California. The San Joaquin Valley farming machine used propaganda, physical intimidation, and their political influence with the local legal systems to brutally break the back of the five-county strike. During the three week confrontation, many workers were beaten; several raids occurred on union meetings, and the courts and jails were clogged with illegally detained union members. The intensity of the violence gained international attention when the Mexican Government intervened on behalf of the Mexican nationals who were among those being denied basic civil and human rights. In response, the United States Government threatened the use of military force until California Governor John Rolf sent in a legion of state police and a team of mediators to end the strike. Painted on a backdrop of racism, local public opinion generally supported the efforts of the farm owners and their henchmen who perpetrated many criminal acts. In the end, those who committed these crimes were never held accountable.
About the Author: Originally from the Boyle Heights district of East Los Angeles, California, Robert Torres earned a Bachelor's Degree in journalism from California State University, Fresno in 1988 and worked his way through graduate school as a news and feature writer for area newspapers. Torres went on to obtain a Master's Degree in History at CSUF in 1994 and was awarded Honorable Mention for his thesis on the cotton workers strike of 1933, which was the basis for his first book, "San Joaquin Valley Cotton War." Robert Torres has spent the last twenty five years studying and writing about Mexican-American issues. He has taught California History, Latin American History and Chicano Studies at Bakersfield College and has also served as a visiting lecturer at California State University Bakersfield.