Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Clara Fernández Huertais an American labor leader and civil rights activist who was the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Huerta has received numerous awards for her community service and advocacy for workers', immigrants', and women's rights, including the Eugene V. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, the United States Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights and the Presidential Medal of Freedom...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCivil Rights Leader
Date of Birth10 April 1930
CityDawnson, NM
CountryUnited States of America
Pride and roots is what it is. It definitely does not mean separation or nationalism in the sense that we want to go back to Mexico.
went back to our old culture, the Latino culture.
I remember as a little girl going down to the beet fields in the Dakotas and in Nebraska and Wyoming as migrant workers when I was very, very small, like, I was, like, 5 years old, I believe. And I remember going out there, you know, traveling to these states and living in these little tarpaper shacks that they had in Wyoming.
My dad was very intelligent, had a very strong personality. I was amazed with my father.
My mother was a very wonderful woman. When she and my dad divorced, she moved to California and worked two jobs in the cannery at night and as a waitress during the day. But she saved enough money to establish a restaurant.
My mother was a dominant force in our family. And I always saw her as the leader. And that was great for me as a young woman, because I never saw that women had to be dominated by men.
I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.
My mother never made me do anything for my brothers, like serve them. I think that's an important lesson, especially for the Latino culture, because the women are expected to be the ones that serve and cook and whatever. Not in our family. Everybody was equal.
Professional farmworkers who know how to do a number of different jobs, whether it be pruning or picking or crafting, they see themselves as professionals, and they take a lot of pride in that work. They don't see themselves as doing work that is demeaning.
Respecting other people’s rights is peace.
Don't be a marshmallow. Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk. Stop being vegetables. Work for Justice. Viva the boycott!
None of that would have happened had it not been for the marches. But our work is not done.
Not spending any money at all would show the economic impact of Latino purchasing power.
We're here celebrating a new civil rights movement, and it's headed up by Latinos.