Biography
Eduardo Herrera was a Mexican agricultural worker who had first been held for deportation before being sent to prison. Eduardo Herrera was one of the nine leaders convicted under California's criminal-syndicalism law after the 14 April 1930 raid on the Agricultural Workers Industrial League at El Centro and sentenced to 2 to 28 years. On 14 April 1930 the Imperial County sheriff raided a meeting of the Agricultural Workers Industrial League — the Trade Union Unity League's farm-labor union — at El Centro, California, arresting about a hundred workers organizing the valley's cantaloupe and lettuce fields. Nine leaders were convicted under California's criminal-syndicalism law, without any overt act of violence, and sent to state prison; the case became one of the ILD's major criminal-syndicalism appeals.
Frank Spector's contemporary account in the July 1930 Labor Defender, pages 136-137, calls Herrera a Colombian agricultural worker (printing Herrero in the body and Herrera in the caption). This conflicts with the Mexican identification in other profile material and remains an unresolved source discrepancy. The press-time note says his sentence had not yet been fixed, while reporting other Imperial Valley sentences; no existing later sentence or release date is changed on that basis.
The Daily Worker of May 29, 1931, page 1, reports that Orosco and Herrera were not included in the Imperial Valley appellate ruling that entirely overruled Spector’s conviction and reversed two counts for six other defendants. It urges continued efforts for their release. No appellate reversal or physical release is assigned to them from the ruling for other prisoners.
The El Centro trial report lists the Imperial Valley defendants in custody in the criminal-syndicalism prosecution and describes $40,000 bonds. It identifies them by surname or shortened spelling. The June 14 report says the jury was still deliberating June 13; the forty-two-year figure is possible exposure at that point, not a verdict or served duration. Daily Worker, June 11, 1930, page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n140-NY-jun-11-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The December 31, 1931 Daily Worker lists Sklar, the prisoner printed Tatsuji Horiuchi and Eduardo Herara for deportation in the Imperial Valley defense account. Horiuchi’s July 1932 removal was prospective, and obstacles arising from lack of U.S.-Soviet relations were discussed for Sklar. The article’s collective sentence and parole figures are not individual completed terms or proof that these three had physically left the United States. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n314-NY-dec-31-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The April 11, 1932 Imperial Valley defense account distinguishes parole terms from physical freedom. It explicitly says Sklar remained in Folsom while immigration arrangements blocked release; projected eighteen-month consequences were not completed service. Horiuchi’s proposed removal to Japan, Herrera’s to Colombia and Emery’s announced February 18, 1933 freedom were future plans, not accomplished events. The source prints Tsuji/T. Horiuchi and Terrera/Herrera; the existing cohort identities are retained. Its proposed reduction of parole terms from fourteen to five years is not five years actually imprisoned. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n086-NY-apr-11-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The March 11 Fresno dispatch published March 12, 1931 reports a fifty-person labor delegation attending the Fourth State District Court of Appeals the previous day to demand release of the Imperial Valley prisoners. It describes the eight organizers as in California state prisons and says an appellate decision was expected in twenty days. The account supplies advocacy and pending appeal, not an accomplished release or new sentence. Its collective three-to-forty-two and two-to-twenty-eight-year terms are reported nominal ranges, not time actually served; spelling and chronology discrepancies do not override independently recorded individual facts. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n062-NY-mar-12-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed page 149 (PDF page 10): Martin Bank's Palm-Treed Paradise names Sklar, Oscar Erikson, Lawrence Emory, Tetsuji Horiuchi and Danny Roxas in the Imperial Valley criminal-syndicalism defense and gives a collective three-to-forty-two-year term. It places these five at Folsom and Eduardo Herra and Braulio Orosco at San Quentin under two-to-twenty-eight-year terms. These printed location and spelling variants are preserved as a contemporary collective account; conflicting individual prison evidence is not silently overwritten. Nominal ranges do not state actual service, and no precise admission, parole or discharge day is given. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
Printed page 172 reports Herrera deported to Panama after eighteen months served in the Imperial Valley case. This is the author's attributed duration and removal destination; it does not supply exact prison admission, physical discharge or sailing dates. Neither the generic forty-two-year term nor the article's June 1931 chronology replaces separately documented earlier evidence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under San Quentin State Prison, California, with two to twenty-eight years, 1930. This is an attributed historical directory entry: the year and nominal term do not establish an intake day, uninterrupted imprisonment, completed service or physical release.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Named as a signer of the Imperial Valley prisoners’ greeting, datelined San Francisco November 6, from confinement following agricultural organizing. The accompanying text places the group in San Quentin and Folsom without assigning every individual prison. Its group-wide forty-two-year wording is not substituted for individual sentences or actual served totals.
