Irene Guzman was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1943, the eldest of Emma Chavez Zamora and Jesse Zamora's three children. Her family lived in Albert Lea, Minnesota. She attended school through the eleventh grade and earned her GED after becoming involved with the Migrant Action Program. José Guzman was born in Kennedy, Texas, in 1940, the youngest of Julia Garza Guzman and Gregorio Guzman's ten surviving children. He grew up primarily in Karnes City, Texas, traveling to Hampton, Iowa, each year, where his family worked as agricultural laborers.

Irene Zamora and José Guzman met as teenagers at a dance in Minnesota and married in the spring of 1961. They had three children: Ernie, Daniel, and Michael. While living in Mason City, 25 miles north of Hampton, they became involved in the Migrant Action Program and later moved to Des Moines to be near the seat of state government, in order to better represent the interests of Iowa Latina/os. José Guzman worked as an outreach worker and organizer for the Migrant Action Program; Irene Guzman testified in support of migrant child labor legislation in Iowa and later worked as a caseworker for the Iowa Department of Human Services.