Biography
Eduardo Herrera, a Mexican agricultural worker who had first been held for deportation before being sent to prison, 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.