Dolores Huerta
BORN: APRIL 10, 1930, IN DAWSON, NEW MEXICO
“Siete lenguas—seven tongues” grandfather Herculano Chavez called young Dolores—the girl who could propose, proclaim, declare, debate, inspire, challenge, and even pray—at lightning speed. She would one day conquer with words the giants of agribusiness, in the name of California’s farmworkers.
Dolores was born in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico, but after her parents divorced, Dolores’s familia moved to Stockton, California, at the northern tip of the agricultural belt of the state, where her mother purchased and ran two hotels. Dolores noticed how she offered room and board, at no cost, to the local campesinos (farmworkers) with little food and no shelter. Mamá Alicia enrolled her jumpy, talky daughter in dance classes, piano lessons, and the school choir.
At school, Dolores, a budding poet, excelled in her reports and papers. However, one teacher stamped a red “C” on her “A” work. “You don’t have the brains for this,” he mumbled.
Dolores opened a Teen Center while at Stockton High, winning support from the locals—until the police boarded it up. How could whites mix with African Americans and Mexicans? Competing for the trophy given to whoever sold the most World War II bonds to support the troops, “Siete lenguas” won. She was denied the prize. How could a Mexican girl accomplish such a feat? the sponsors said.
After graduating from University of the Pacific with a teaching credential (the first in her family to attend college), she decided she could do more by speaking for and organizing farmworkers than by teaching their children.
“It was a pot of gold!” Dolores said when she began doing community organizing with Fred Ross, who had started the Community Service Organization (CSO) in order to battle segregation, fend off police brutality, kick-start voter registration drives, and improve public services in general. Dolores opened a chapter in Stockton, then created the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) to lobby government legislators in Sacramento for farmworkers’ rights.
Dolores expanded her vision—farmworkers needed the removal of citizenship requirements from pension and public assistance programs for legal residents of California and the United States. They needed the right to vote in Spanish and to take the driver’s license exam in their native language. Dolores raised her voice and led others to help make these changes happen.
Dolores met César Chávez, another community organizer, while working in the CSO. Both deeply believed in solving the injustices that farmworkers faced. After leaving the CSO in the early sixties, César and Dolores created the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) in Delano, California, in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. On September 16, 1965, the NFWA joined the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (an outgrowth of the AWA that Dolores had started a few years earlier) in a strike where over five thousand grape workers walked off their jobs for better pay and working conditions. These efforts were followed by more successful negotiations that Dolores conducted on behalf of the farmworkers. Dolores worked with César Chávez for over thirty years until he died in 1993.
In 1966, Dolores debated, spoke for, and worked out the NFWA contract with the Schenley Wine Company, the first time that such a corporation negotiated with a group of organized farmworkers. With intense determination and unrelenting valor, Dolores continued making such landmark changes in labor policy for the next four decades.
One of her most successful calls for boycotts resulted in the enactment of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. This law granted farmworkers the right to collectively organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions.
Dolores organized field strikes, directed the grape, lettuce, and Gallo Wine boycotts, and led farmworkers in campaigns for political candidates. Her communication style was forceful and uncompromising. With this talent, she succeeded in bringing together many community workers, religious groups, students, peace groups, feminists, and Hispanic associations.
For her tireless work on behalf of farmworkers, in 2012 Dolores Huerta was awarded the Medal of Freedom from President Obama whose campaign slogan—“Yes, we can!”—was an echo of the words of Dolores Huerta:“!Sí, se puede!” “Yes, we can!”