Hernández is best known for representing the Latinx/Chicanx culture and hardships of the working class in San Francisco during the Farmers Workers Movement. Growing up in Dinuba, California, she was a spectator of the riots and strikes organized by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. In the early mid 1900s, labor movements began to take form and shaped the political and social climate. Mark D. Johnson, Professor of Art at San Francisco State University, states “At one time, the strongest and most important artists in California made art about labor.” Many artists were inspired and began to reflect the life of the working class through their art. During her education at Grove Street College in Oakland, California, Ester Hernandez began to learn more about her own culture and the unfair treatment of the working Latina women. There, she began focusing on using her art as an outlet for her anger about the treatment of her community.