Food and Solidarity
General Motors Assembly Line Workers, Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Classic Cuban Sandwich, Courtesy of the Florida Memory Project
In research for the book Upsetting the Apple Cart about black and Latino coalitions I found interesting examples in organized labor. Union activities and breaking bread together at lunchtime help to create solidarity. That was the case among General Motors workers in North Tarrytown. Black and Latino workers bonded on the plant floor as they assembled cars and at lunch time as they enjoyed fritas (Cuban-style hamburgers), empanadas, and Cuban sandwiches at Corona’s Luncheonette. “I had customers from all parts of the world, Cubans, Venezuelans, all kinds of Hispanics” and “a lot of African Americans,” recalls Cuban immigrant and owner Francisco Corona. He estimates that he had more African American customers than Hispanics because perhaps twice as many of them worked at the plant in the 1960s.
