Cantaloupe Cantaloupe Cantaloupe (muskmelon, mushmelon, rockmelon, sweet melon) or spanspek (South Africa) is a variety of the "Cucumis melo" species in the Cucurbitaceae family. Cantaloupes range in weight from . Originally, "cantaloupe" referred only to the non-netted, orange-fleshed melons of Europe, but may mean any orange-fleshed melon of "C. melo". China is the world's largest producer of cantaloupes, providing half of the global total in 2016. The name cantaloupe is derived via French "cantaloup" from Italian "Cantalupo," which was formerly a papal county seat near Rome, after the fruit's introduction there from Armenia. It was first mentioned in English literature in
Cantaloupe strike of 1928 Imperial County. About twenty thousand people, one-third of the county’s total population, were persons of Mexican descent”. The Mexican immigrants were integrating themselves into American society and many people in the United States harbored hostilities towards them for just that fact alone. Cantaloupe pickers had three main demands for their employers: “better housing conditions, safeguards against defaulting contractors, and proper insurance under the Workmen’s Compensation Act”. The major issue was defaulting contractors because the workers were losing their wages. Growers would retain 20 to 25 percent of the workers’ wages, then give the wages to a contractor to hold in