By Gabriel Thompson, Capital & Main
This story is produced by the award-winning journalism nonprofit Capital & Main and co-published here with permission.
The new documentary American Agitators looks at the life and legacy of Fred Ross Sr., one of the most influential community and labor organizers of the 20th century. Ross, who died in 1992, was active during some of the most sweeping and consequential periods of California history, from the Dust Bowl migration to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, before mentoring a generation of Mexican American leaders that included Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
Capital & Main recently spoke with award-winning director Ray Telles about the making of the film and what lessons Ross’ life can offer budding organizers today. The film premieres in San Jose, California, on March 16 at the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Question: Let’s start with your own story. How did you first come to learn about Ross?
Ray Telles: In the 1960s my dad was a union electrician in Los Angeles and had done some wiring at farmworker camps. He first introduced me to the story of the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez. Later, I worked at KQED [San Francisco’s public radio station] from the early ’80s to 1992 or so and covered agriculture and labor stories up and down the state. That eventually led me to work on The Fight in the Fields with Rick Tejada-Flores. I knew Ross as the person who had trained Chavez and Dolores Huerta. But it was over the years talking to his son, Fred Ross Jr., that I really learned more about him and had a better understanding of the work he did and the impact he had.
Why isn’t Ross better known?
He was a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. In the film, people talk about how he was always in the back of the room, a strategist. He never wanted to be in the limelight. He didn’t want the attention; he didn’t make speeches. He was just doing the work.
What are some of the key takeaways young organizers can learn from Ross?
First, people have to come together to make change. Fred was able to work with many different people from many different backgrounds. The whole concept of building coalitions, of people working together, is more important now than ever. But the lesson that resonates most for me at this time is that we have to keep moving forward. If we encounter an obstacle, we go around it, we go over it — we just keep going and never give up.
Did anything surprise you during the making of the documentary?
My big surprise was how much influence he had over so many people. He trained far more people that I really appreciated.
As an independent producer, I normally raise my own money. For this, Fred Jr. [Fred Ross’ son] and the folks he knows were able to raise a huge amount of money in a very short time — from labor unions, foundations, individuals, organizations. It was astonishing. So many people attributed their success to Ross Sr. and wanted to help share his story.
What challenges did you have to overcome to make American Agitators?
Fred Jr. and I discussed the idea of a film about his dad for 30 years. Fred Jr. was also a great organizer who had tremendous love for his father and enthusiasm for sharing his legacy. Finally, in 2021, we said, “Let’s move on it. We need to do it now.” In early 2022 we were going full speed ahead, and a couple months later, Fred Jr. was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We had weekly meetings right up to the day he died. [Fred Jr. passed away in November 2022].
Can you talk about how you decided to structure the documentary, which includes a history of Ross’ life and work and then shifts to documenting contemporary organizing campaigns?
The question was, what is this film about? In conversations with Fred Jr. over the years, we decided that it was the story of his dad but also the lessons. What work was going on now that reflects the work that Ross did? We wanted to follow solid movements with track records, so we looked at groups like the Fight for $15 [a movement started by fast-food workers seeking to unionize and raise the minimum wage] and the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas. I wanted to combine the old with the new, the biographical with a bigger picture about the story of organizing.
For Ross, organizing was everything. Do you have hopes of using this film as an organizing or educational tool?
The long life of this film is in the schools and as an organizing tool with labor unions. We’re going to cut it down to about 40 minutes, so that teachers can use it in the classroom, and we will develop a curriculum with modules, so teachers can look at particular themes. And we want it to be used in communities and labor unions. That’s where the value of this film is.
Ross organized during dark and challenging periods in American history, including the Great Depression and the incarceration of Japanese Americans. What sorts of insights can we learn from him that might have relevance to our current moment?
I teach at UC Berkeley. Last night I showed the film in a class called “Ethnicity and Race in Contemporary American Films.” I was interested in their reaction. Is this relevant to you guys these days? And the youngsters in there, who wanted to get involved in social change work, said it was really inspiring — that you don’t just go out and demonstrate, you’ve got to follow up, you’ve got to do the work afterwards. Eliseo [Eliseo Medina, an influential labor organizer who was trained by Ross] said in the film that Ross taught people to organize step by step, and that you’ve got to have that one-to-one contact. You can’t do it all just by texting or with social media. And that anybody can do it. People can see the film and say, “Oh, there are ways to do it — but it takes hard work.”
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like to see the documentary. this are crucial times for the Hispanic community. we needs some type of guidance and experience leaders to mentor and organize new potential leaders for a new movement.