NAGI DAIFALLAH
1949 – 1973
Nagi had come to this country from his native Yemen looking for a better life. Yemenese Farm Workers were the latest group of people to come to California to be exploited by the California growers.
Most of them, like Nagi, were young men in their early twenties, they were unusually shy, of slight frame, Moslem, spoke no English, and live in barren labor camps. Like other workers, they were paid only when they worked and lived wretched lives. Yet they came by the thousands because Yemen was and is one of the poorest countries of the world where the average annual income was $94. Before the UFWs’ organizing efforts, there were no alternatives for these workers.
Nagi was 24 years old when he was killed. He was 5 feet tall and weighed 100 lbs. Unlike many of his fellow workers, he had learned English and could communicate well. Many times he had served as an interpreter for UFW organizers, he was always very active in union activities, he was a good UFW member, and, in fact, was known as a leader of the Arab workers.
As a striker from El Rancho Farms near Arvin, he was one of a handful of Arab brothers who were on the picket lines in the Lamont area for many weeks of the strike.
At approximately 1:15 a.m. on August 15, a group of about 15 UFW members were present at the Smokehouse Café in Lamont, California. A Kern County Sheriff’s Department vehicle arrived. One of the 3 officers in the car, Deputy Gilbert Cooper, began harassing Frank Quintana, a UFW member and picket captain.
Deputy Cooper attempted to arrest Quintana, who had been peacefully standing outside the café, for disturbing the peace. Such an arrest was in keeping with the continued campaign of harassment and arrests of UFW picket captains by the Sheriff’s Department during the grape strike of 1973.
The Farm Workers who were with Quintana protested the arrest. In the midst of this confrontation, Deputy Sheriff Cooper, inexplicably, singled out Nagi and started harassing him. Nagi tried to get away and Cooper began chasing him as he ran north on the sidewalk.
The Deputy caught up behind Nagi and, without any warning to halt, swung a long, 5-cell, metal flashlight and struck Nagi in the back of the head. Cooper, 6 feet tall and more than 200 pounds, delivered such a forceful blow to the 5 foot, 100 pound Nagi that he severed Nagi’s spinal cord from the base of his skull. Nagi fell to his knees from the viciousness of the blow and then crumpled face forward to the sidewalk, unconscious and bleeding profusely from his head.
Two Sheriff’s Deputies then turned Nagi on his back, seized him by the wrists and dragged him, head dangling and bouncing on the pavement, for sixty feet, leaving a massive trail of blood all the way. They left his body lying in the gutter near the rear door of the police car.
Other people, who had been told to leave by the police, attempted to come to Nagi’s aid and asked the officers why they did not call an ambulance. More deputies arrived in response to the people’s attempts to reach Nagi and request an ambulance. Three workers were arrested in their attempt to help their fallen brother.
At Nagi’s funeral thousands of UFW workers and supporters followed the casket bearing Nagi’s body on the 4-mile trek to the Forty Acres in Delano. After the service, a long car caravan accompanied the casket to the Bakersfield airport and Nagi’s body was flown to Yemen for burial in his homeland. Mushin Daifallah, Nagi’s father told us that Nagi was a dutiful son who sent him money as often as he could to support the family in Yemen. He said “I lost my son when I needed him the most.”
STATEMENT BY CESAR E. CHAVEZ
Nagi Daifallah was an immigrant. Like so many thousands of Farm Workers, he came to this country seeking opportunity and fell into the trap of poverty and powerlessness that has enslaved so many migrant Farm Workers in our country.
He joined the United Farm Workers Union and gave himself fully to the grape strike and the struggle of justice for all Farm Workers.
Nagi Daifallah is dead at the age of 24. The hand that struck Brother Nagi down trembles in fear. It too is the victim of the climate of the violence, racism, and hatred created by those men who own everything…and kill what they cannot own.
We are faced with discrimination, exploitation, and even slaughter. The government represses our people and millions of Farm Workers are trapped in poverty while the growers lavish in riches we have earned for them.
These are differing ills, but they are the common works of greedy men. They reflect the imperfection of our society.
In the struggle to change these evils, Nagi gave his life.