In the early 1930s, when the country was in the throes of the Great Depression, a drought devastated the American Midwest, expelling from their farms tens of thousands of farmers who were forced to migrate in search of work. It is calculated that almost 150 thousand Americans wandered the roads of California, offering their services as temporary workers for the harvest. In spite of their having been necessary in order to collect all the crops, the locals received them with hatred and disdain, calling them ignorant, dirty, and carriers of disease. John Steinbeck, then a promising young writer, wrote a series of articles on these migrant workers, published in 1936 in the San Francisco News. A comienzos de los años treinta, cuando el país atravesaba la Gran Depresión, una persistente sequía asoló el medio oeste de los Estados Unidos, expulsando de sus granjas a decenas de miles de campesinos que se vieron obligados a emigrar en busca de trabajo. Se calcula que cerca de 150 mil norteamericanos vagaban por las carreteras del estado de California ofreciéndose como temporeros para la cosecha. A pesar de ser imprescindibles para llevar a cabo la recolección, eran recibidos con odio y menosprecio por los habitantes de las localidades por donde pasaban, tachados de ignorantes, sucios y portadores de enfermedades. John Steinbeck, entonces un prometedor escritor, los retrató en una serie de reportajes aparecidos en 1936 en el San Francisco News.