Dolores Huerta (1930- ), labor and civil rights activist, advocate for immigrants
- Co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America
“Democracy can only work if the people take power,” says Dolores Huerta, and she has dedicated her entire life to addressing labor and social problems and then helping the people involved take appropriate power.
Huerta was born in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico. Her father was a miner as well as a union activist and state assemblyman, but he and Huerta’s mother, Alicia Chavez, divorced when Huerta was only three. Chavez moved her children to Stockton, California to be near extended family, and she started a restaurant and soon expanded to running a 70-room hotel. Many farm workers lived in Stockton, and Huerta’s mother was active in community organizations to help them.
Dolores Huerta graduated from college and taught school. She also volunteered for causes that were important to her. In 1955 she co-founded the local chapter of the Community Service Organization (a Latino civil rights organization), and in 1960, she co-founded the Agricultural Workers Association and set up voter registration drives.
Hungry Kids Motivated Her
In 1962 she left teaching, saying: “I quit because I couldn’t stand 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.”
CONTINUE READING…
Last week I wrote about baseball catcher Roy Campanella. Reading his autobiography sent me in search of who, what, when, where, and why about the end of discrimination in professional baseball.