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Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta (Spanish: [d̪oˈloɾes ˈwert̪a] ⓘ; born April 10, 1930) is an American labor leader and feminist activist. After working for several years with the Community Service Organization (CSO), she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activists Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla, which eventually merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta joined Filipino leader Larry Itliong in the Delano grape strike in 1965, managing boycott campaigns on the east coast and negotiating with the grape companies to end the strike. Some credit her with inventing the UFW slogan "sí se puede" (transl. 'yes you can').
Although she initially opposed certain feminist concepts, such as the right to abortion and contraception, Huerta eventually became a strong proponent of women's rights. She has worked with the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) to help Latina women become more active and visible in politics, campaigned for women's reproductive rights, and served as an honorary co-chair of the 2017 Women's March in Washington, D.C.
In 2002, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), a civic advocacy organization based in Bakersfield, California. She is active in Democratic politics and has supported the campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy, George McGovern, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden. She is also a supporter of LGBTQ rights and immigration reform.
Huerta has received numerous awards for her work as an organizer, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, the Hispanic Heritage Award, and the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. In 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill proclaiming April 10 as "Dolores Huerta Day" in California. A similar bill was signed in Oregon in 2019. She is portrayed by Rosario Dawson in the 2014 film Cesar Chavez and is the subject of the 2017 documentary Dolores.
Dolores Huerta was born Dolores Fernández on April 10, 1930, in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico. Her father, Juan Fernández, was a coal miner who belonged to the United Mine Workers (UMW). Labor unrest caused him to move throughout the Western United States working as a beet farmer. Her mother, Alicia Chávez, divorced him when Huerta was five years old. She and the children then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and later to Stockton, California. After moving, she rarely saw her father, who remained in New Mexico. He was elected to the state legislature in 1938, where he was described as a "fiery union leader" by the Los Angeles Times.
In Stockton, Huerta was raised by her mother and grandfather, Herculano. She described their neighborhood as "integrated", with "Chinese, Latinos, Native Americans, Blacks, Japanese, Italians, and others". Her mother supported the family by working two jobs: as a canner and as a waitress at a local restaurant, earning a total income of $5 weekly from both jobs combined. She was a member of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), participating in a strike at the cannery in 1937. In 1941, she opened a restaurant. The following year, she bought a 70-room hotel from a Japanese American family who were forced to relocate due to Executive Order 9066. According to Huerta, the restaurant "catered mostly to farm workers".
Huerta, who was "encouraged by her mother to be socially active" according to researcher Christine Beagle, spent ten years as a Girl Scout. She attended Stockton High School, graduating in 1947. Huerta described her high school as being "segregated" by both class and race. After graduating from high school, she married her high school sweetheart, Ralph Head, but they divorced three years later. They had two children: Celeste and Lori. She attended the University of the Pacific's Stockton College (later San Joaquin Delta College) and graduated in 1953 with a provisional teaching credential.
Huerta became a teacher in rural California in 1954. She was one of three bilingual teachers in the area. Many of her students struggled with hunger and did not have sufficient clothing, stating:
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Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta (Spanish: [d̪oˈloɾes ˈwert̪a] ⓘ; born April 10, 1930) is an American labor leader and feminist activist. After working for several years with the Community Service Organization (CSO), she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activists Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla, which eventually merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta joined Filipino leader Larry Itliong in the Delano grape strike in 1965, managing boycott campaigns on the east coast and negotiating with the grape companies to end the strike. Some credit her with inventing the UFW slogan "sí se puede" (transl. 'yes you can').
Although she initially opposed certain feminist concepts, such as the right to abortion and contraception, Huerta eventually became a strong proponent of women's rights. She has worked with the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) to help Latina women become more active and visible in politics, campaigned for women's reproductive rights, and served as an honorary co-chair of the 2017 Women's March in Washington, D.C.
In 2002, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), a civic advocacy organization based in Bakersfield, California. She is active in Democratic politics and has supported the campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy, George McGovern, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden. She is also a supporter of LGBTQ rights and immigration reform.
Huerta has received numerous awards for her work as an organizer, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, the Hispanic Heritage Award, and the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. In 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill proclaiming April 10 as "Dolores Huerta Day" in California. A similar bill was signed in Oregon in 2019. She is portrayed by Rosario Dawson in the 2014 film Cesar Chavez and is the subject of the 2017 documentary Dolores.
Dolores Huerta was born Dolores Fernández on April 10, 1930, in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico. Her father, Juan Fernández, was a coal miner who belonged to the United Mine Workers (UMW). Labor unrest caused him to move throughout the Western United States working as a beet farmer. Her mother, Alicia Chávez, divorced him when Huerta was five years old. She and the children then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and later to Stockton, California. After moving, she rarely saw her father, who remained in New Mexico. He was elected to the state legislature in 1938, where he was described as a "fiery union leader" by the Los Angeles Times.
In Stockton, Huerta was raised by her mother and grandfather, Herculano. She described their neighborhood as "integrated", with "Chinese, Latinos, Native Americans, Blacks, Japanese, Italians, and others". Her mother supported the family by working two jobs: as a canner and as a waitress at a local restaurant, earning a total income of $5 weekly from both jobs combined. She was a member of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), participating in a strike at the cannery in 1937. In 1941, she opened a restaurant. The following year, she bought a 70-room hotel from a Japanese American family who were forced to relocate due to Executive Order 9066. According to Huerta, the restaurant "catered mostly to farm workers".
Huerta, who was "encouraged by her mother to be socially active" according to researcher Christine Beagle, spent ten years as a Girl Scout. She attended Stockton High School, graduating in 1947. Huerta described her high school as being "segregated" by both class and race. After graduating from high school, she married her high school sweetheart, Ralph Head, but they divorced three years later. They had two children: Celeste and Lori. She attended the University of the Pacific's Stockton College (later San Joaquin Delta College) and graduated in 1953 with a provisional teaching credential.
Huerta became a teacher in rural California in 1954. She was one of three bilingual teachers in the area. Many of her students struggled with hunger and did not have sufficient clothing, stating:
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