Women’s History Month Celebrates: Dolores Huerta

Many words have been associated with Dolores Huerta, Activist, Feminist, Icon, Rebel, Civil Rights Hero, Passionate, Advocate, Pioneer, but only one set of words makes her very happy whenever she hears them…

Dolores Huerta was born April 10, 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico. Her father Juan was a farm worker, and a union activist who ran for political office and won a seat in the New Mexico legislature in the 1930’s. Her mother Alicia was an active participant in community affairs and was involved in numerous civic organizations. According to Dolores, her mother’s independence and entrepreneurial spirit were one of the reasons she became a feminist.

Dolores received her Associate degree in teaching from the University of the Pacific’s Delta College. During her time as a teacher, she had a hard time seeing her students coming to school bare foot and hungry.

In an interview with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health Dolores said “I couldn’t tolerate seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children”.

In the spring of 1962 Dolores and César Chavez launched the National Farm Workers Association, which organized farmworkers who worked for wages as low as 70 cents an hour, under extreme conditions. In an interview with NPR she said, “They didn’t have toilets in the fields, they didn’t have cold drinking water. They didn’t have rest periods”. “The National Farm Workers Association later became the United Farm Workers’ Union, and she served as the Vice President until 1999.

She was key in the enactment of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which was the first law of its kind in the United States. It granted farm workers in California the right to collectively organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions

One of Dolores’ most famous battles was the 1965 Delano strike of 5,000 grape workers. She was the driving force behind the nationwide table grape boycotts in the late 1960’s that led to a successful union contract by 1970.

As founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she travels across the country engaging in campaigns and influencing legislation that supports equality and defends civil rights.

Yes, many words have been associated with Dolores Huerta over the years but the one set of words that make her feel very happy whenever she hears them are the words that she has used to rally so many over the years, they are the words that she coined as the  slogan for the immigrant rights movement… Sí, Se Puede (Yes, We Can)

“Dolores” airs on Rocky Mountain PBS on Tuesday March 27, 2018 at 8pm MDT.

A link to the trailer is below. 

http://video.rmpbs.org/video/3009122717/Interview with Dolores Huerta, Steve Chavis and Rodney Franks