Heroes and Saints is a play written by author Cherrie Moraga. It was first performed in 1992. Although set in the fictional town of McLaughlin, Moraga draws from the real-life case of McFarland, California where high exposure to pesticides caused a cancer cluster in children. Moraga also includes the United Farms Workers, a union organized by migrant farm workers to fight for safer and more dignified living and working conditions. In 1988, Cesar Chavez went on a hunger strike to protest the use of pesticides in industrial farming. Moraga weaves these historical events into her narrative so that the play is in direct conversation with the political events of the time.
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