Bent Northrop Memorial Library

One of Maurice "Mo" Jourdane's greatest contributions to the advancement of farm workers in the fields of California was his relentless—and ultimately successful—effort to end agricultural employers' required use of the short-handled hoe by laborers in the state's lucrative lettuce, celery, sugar beet, and strawberry industries. The short hoe, known by Hispanic farm workers as el cortito (the short one), was the cause of severe and