Correspondence, reports, minutes, legal documents, notes, newsletters, press releases, newsclippings, statistical information, questionnaires and photographs documenting Galarza's career as a labor organizer, scholar, Research Director in the National Agricultural Workers Union (1947-1960), and nationally prominent Mexican American activist.

Ernesto Galarza was born in Jalcocotan in the state of Nayarit, Mexico, in 1905. In 1910, Ernesto, his mother, and two maternal uncles left their village to find employment and escape the depredations during the Madero Revolt. They spent three years traveling northward before settling in Sacramento, California. During their journey, they spent one year in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, where Galarza began his formal schooling in 1911. Although his mother and one uncle died in an influenza epidemic when Ernesto was only twelve, his other uncle made it possible for him to continue his education. He soon became fluent in English, and took part-time and summer jobs as a messenger, drug store clerk, court interpreter, and field and cannery worker. Following graduation from high school, Galarza entered Occidental College in Los Angeles on scholarship in 1923. He was a member of the debate team, wrote for the school newspaper, did field work in Mexico during his senior year, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

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