An administrator by occupation, Daneen used her unique skills to help organize and run political campaigns and union causes across Santa Clara County in the late ‘60s and ‘70s.
Daneen Montoya played pioneering roles alongside her husband, Ruben Montoya, while they helped Cesar Chavez build the United Farm Workers during the 1960s and ’70s. We learned with sadness of her passing on August 30 at age 88.
Ruben and Daneen first met Cesar when they led Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 grassroots presidential campaign in San Jose. Then they went to work with the UFW organizing the grape boycott.
An artist and graphic designer, Ruben also produced and printed UFW posters, bumper stickers, buttons, flags, picket signs and t-shirts. Daneen and Ruben organized the grape boycott in and around the Bay Area. From 1968 to 1970, she helped organize and host car caravans taking donated food and clothing to the grape strikers in Delano. Daneen and Ruben’s San Jose garage was a hub for donations and caravan runs.
Cesar convinced the Montoyas to create and lead El Taller Grafico, the union’s print/graphics operation that Cesar envisioned, for “pay” of $5 per week plus room and board. They moved from suburban San Jose to the movement’s 187-acre headquarters at La Paz in the Tehachapi Mountain town of Keene southeast of Bakersfield. With two of their three sons, the Montoyas were one of the first families to live and labor at what today is the National Chavez Center, a part of which since 2012 has been the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument, the 398th unit of the National Park Service.
For five years, they brought on many volunteers to help build the printshop in La Paz. At the same time they revamped and printed the UFW’s monthly newspaper, El Malcriado. They printed and distributed all the paraphernalia the union used to raise funds and national awareness through booklets, pamphlets, posters, bumper stickers, calendars, t-shirts, stamps, and buttons. All were produced and sold through El Taller Grafico.
In addition, Daneen was an organizer under UFW Vice President Peter Velasco, commuting weekly from La Paz to Delano to help organize and work on various boycotts and with the union’s Filipino contingency. She recalls marching 20 miles in 100-degree heat to Calexico in 1969 with Leonard Nimoy and U.S. Senators Walter Mondale and Edward Kennedy. Daneen became close with Helen Chavez, Cesar’s wife, and the Chavez family.
Years working as a full-time UFW volunteer at least six days a week from 1968 to 1973 eventually took a toll on their marriage. She left the UFW to return home to San Jose, taking their two sons who she raised as a single mother.
Daneen served with the Catholic Youth Organization as an administrator and helped manage volunteers and CYO recreational centers throughout Santa Clara County as well as a yearly CYO summer camp in Occidental. Daneen still continued volunteering with the UFW, working part time on various campaigns
She was born Daneen Cranor on December 17, 1935 in Leavenworth, Kansas and passed away on August 30, 2024 at Santa Clara Medical Center.
Daneen Montoya is survived by her sons, Mark Jon (married to Karen) in San Jose, Scott (married to Maria) in Studio City, Jon (married to Sandy) in Beaverton, Oregon; her grandchildren, Steven in San Jose (who was her in-home-caretaker the past five years); Jeneese and Jonathan Spruill in San Jose, Giovanna and Alessandro Montoya in Studio City; a great grandchild, JJ Spruill of San Jose; and a daughter-in-law Rosie Montoya.
The Montoya family asks donations in Daneen’s name go to the United Farm Workers. Donations can be made in her memory at: https://ufw.org/daneenmontoyarip
Photo of Daneen Montoya (right) with Helen Chavez and Rita Chavez Medina, Cesar’s older sister.