El Malcriado was a biweekly newspaper established by Chicano labor leader Cesar Chavez. Launched in 1964, it was the unofficial publication of the United Farm Workers. The newspaper gave voice to Mexican American farm workers. El Malcriado, loosely translated from Spanish, meant “the troublemaker”.
Readers could subscribe for two dollars a year or pick up a copy for just ten cents at their local grocery store. The newspaper was published both in Spanish and English and was distributed primarily in the Central Valley region of California.
El Malcriado served as a clearinghouse of resources for farm workers. It featured stories on Farm Workers Service Centers which offered income tax and social security assistance to laborers. Articles covered everything from a farm workers benefit concert featuring folksinger Joan Baez to longstanding strikes by grape pickers in California. Readers learned about mistreatment of strikers by the authorities. And there was an extensive “letters to the editor” section which captured the thoughts of ordinary farm workers.
See copies of El Malcriado in the Lewis Gould papers at UW’s American Heritage Center