They accompany the Dawson family to the lettuce fields of Salinas, where they find honest work and happiness, changing their identities.

Chavez spent his life fighting for the migrant Latino labourers who toil in California's dusty vineyards and lettuce fields.

Federal investigators traced the Taco John's outbreak back to lettuce fields in California.

In the heart of the San Benito valley, surrounded by walnut groves, lettuce fields and vineyards lies the town of Hollister.

"It would be nice to take a good shower once in a while," a worker said after spending 13 hours in lettuce fields.

She worked in the lettuce fields and supplemented her income with welfare.

Steinbeck's lettuce fields are still there, alongside miles of artichokes; 95 per cent of America's artichokes grow around nearby Castroville.

The union was poised to launch its next major campaign in the lettuce fields in 1970 when a deal between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the growers nearly destroyed it.

He was well respected as an efficient crew foreman in the lettuce fields of the Salinas Valley in California, because he spoke Spanish and intimidated laborers.

He has used that money to buy a motorized pump to draw water from his well to irrigate his cabbage and lettuce fields.