Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta

Introduction
I bet you’ve heard about Cesar Chavez, but have you ever heard about Dolores Huerta? Dolores Huerta led the organizations of boycotts advocating for consumer rights. Therefore, leading into an entire California table grape industry by signing a three-year bargaining agreement with the UFW(United Farm Workers) in the year of 1970. Although Cesar Chavez created the UFW, Huerta created the slogan, “Sí se puede!” as the co-founder. She inspires so many people in the past and present and continues to do so. In fact, did you know that they named an entire school named off of her? She represents all the organizations advocating for Hispanic’s Rights. She inspired many people like workers, immigrants and women. She is an inspiring and astonishing figure in history.
Early Life

On April 10, 1930, the leading figure in the feminist movement of the 1970s was born. She was born in Dawson, New Mexico which is present day a ghost town in Colfax County. She had 2 brothers and she was the middle child. When Huerta was three years old, her parents divorced. Her siblings and she moved to Stockton, California with her mom. Her grandfather had helped them move in and helped take care of them when their mom had to work. Her mom had to juggle between jobs as a cannery and a waitress until she could open a small restaurant and hotel. Her mom’s strong-willed work and determination had greatly influenced Dolores to be the figure she is today.

Dolores faced many racial discriminations as a child. One day, her school teacher accused Dolores of cheating because she prejudiced against Hispanics. She accused her of stealing another student’s paper due to the fact that it was too well-written. In 1945, the end of World War II, white men had beaten up her brother for wearing a Zoot-Suit, a popular Latino and Hispanic fashion. She has gained an award for an associate teaching degree from the University of Pacific’s Delta College. When she was a student, she married Ralph Head and had two daughters. However, the couple soonly divorced. In time, she met and married her fellow activist, Ventura Huerta. She had five children but the marriage didn't last. Huerta had briefly taught school in the 1950s, but she had seen many hungry farm children coming. The children were poor and had rags for clothes. She thought about what she could do to help the poor children and decided to make an impact on the world!

Significant Events
On January 1st, 1955, Huerta began her career as an activist. She helped create the “Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization”(CSO). This organization was created to fight for the economic improvements for the Hispanic community. It also fought for the lead voter registration drives. Dolores Huerta also founded AWA, the Agricultural Workers Association. She created this organization to help advance her cause of gaining the rights for farm workers that had also allowed migrant workers without U.S citizenship the right to receive public assistance and pension, creating Spanish-language voting ballots and driver’s license. But, it was through her work from the AWA, that she had received the opportunity to meet Cesar Chavez. Also, by the CSO, she had another chance to greet Cesar. They both were activists, labor leaders and environmentalists. They both fought against agribusiness. They joined together and made an alliance, and it was because of her work in AWA.

On January 1, 1962, Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez created NFWA, the National Farmer Worker Association, which was the predecessor of the United Farm Workers, UFW, that had formed three years later(1965). The UFW was created on January 1, 1965. Huerta and Chavez had worked together, with Chavez as the leader and speaker and Huerta as the negotiator and organizer. She had served as UFW vice president and co-founder until 1999. On January 1, 1965-January 1, 1970, the Delano Grape Strike was active. The Delano Grape Strike was created to organize the strike of over 5,000 grape workers for the wages that are equal to the federal minimum wage and the following boycott of the wine company. They used many non-violent resistance against them. They used strategies such as boycotts, rallies, marches and protests. This movement had gained national attention for the issues that the farm workers had faced. Finally, they eventually reached a bargaining agreement in 1970.

The UFW and AWA were combined to form the UFWOC(United Farm Worker Organizing Committee). From this organization, Huerta had fought for fair contracts for workers and increased the number of available jobs. She had also fought against the use of harmful pesticides and for unemployment and healthcare benefits for agricultural workers. Once again, Huerta helps organize “the Second Grape Strike”. Through the UFW, Huerta led even more non-violent protests. They boycotted to protest against the unfair treatment of agricultural workers on grape farms in California. To be specific, their inability to choose their own union. In 1973, Dolores led another consumer boycott of grapes that resulted in the ground-breaking California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. Which allowed farm workers the ability to form unions and bargain for better wages and conditions. Finally, on January 1, 1973-January 1, 1975, the contracts from the original grape strike expired, the grape flowers had begun to abuse their power over the farm workers. It led to the second strike organized by the UFW. It ended with the signing of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975.

Contributions
On January 1, 1975-January 1, 1999, Dolores Huerta continued to lobby for the rights of farm workers. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Dolores had worked as a lobbyist through her position at the UFW to improve workers’ legislation representation. During the 1900s and 2000s, she worked to elect more Latinos and women to political office and campaigned women’s issues. Huerta had worked with the UFW to convince Governor Jerry Brown to pass the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. This act had allowed farm workers to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions for farmers.

Then, on January 1, 1993, she was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame. On January 1, 1999, Dolores Huerta resigned as vice-president. She stepped down from her position from the UFW. However, all her hard-work and influential speeches had improved the lives of workers, immigrants and women. On January 1, 1999 – January 12, 2012, Huerta was continuous in her work. Today, Dolores remains an active board member of the FMF, Feminists Majority Foundation. The Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, and the President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. The Dolores Huerta Foundation was founded in 2002. It involved community organizing.

In 1998, she received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award. Her numerous contributions and honors include induction (1993) into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2002, she also won the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Then, in 2007, she also earned the Community of Christ International Peace award. In the year 2012, she was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. As for the year of 2015, she was a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Dolores Huerta was the subject of the documentary Dolores (2017). In the year of 2020, she received the Glamorf Lifetime Achievement Award.

I can tell that you’re wondering, How did Dolores Huerta become famous? Or why is she famous? Well, I’m about to talk about that. Dolores Huerta is most famous for all her work contributing to the United Farm Workers Association. It is stated that she is one of the most influential labor activists in the 20th century. She is famous for all her peaceful protests, boycotts and marches. She fought in the First and Second Grape Strike. She was also part of the Chicago Civil Rights movement. She fought for the rights of women, workers, immigrants and for Hispanic’s rights. She is determined in many different ways. So, she made the slogan, “Sí se puede” in the year of 1972. There’s so many more things that she has done, but I could never list them all. But, I can say that she is one of the most influential, inspiring and astounding figures in history.

Huerta’s Traits
Dolores Huerta had many incredible traits. By many, I mean that I could never name them all unless you would want to read a 1,000 page biography just on her traits. But of course, I am going to list the most important traits about her. By far, the three most important traits of Dolores Huerta is that she is outspoken, passionate and determined. She is outspoken because she fights for what she thinks is right. She fought for the Rights of many people. In case you’re wondering what outspoken means, it means that you can honestly give your opinion to others. It also means that you're willing to give advice even if it shocks people. She is passionate because she doesn’t care about what other people think. She did all that she could so she could make the world a better place for women, immigrants, workers and Hispanic people. She was determined because she did everything she could so she could fight for the Rights of people. She was determined because fought for many Rights. She made the world better. She is super inspiring up to this day.

She is so influential that they named April 10, Dolores Huerta day. They chose this date because it was the day she was born. It became a national holiday on July 18, 2018 by Governor Eleni Kounalakis. She was so inspiring and important that they named schools after her. In Los Angeles, California, there is a Dolores Huerta Elementary School. In Lennox, California, there is another Dolores Huerta Elementary School. Finally, Dolores Huerta Middle School is located in Burbank, California. Dolores has so many traits that I could never possibly name them all. But, those are the three most important.

Conclusion
You have learned many things about Dolores Huerta. I hope you learned something new because I know I did. Dolores Huerta led organizations of boycotts advocating for consumer rights. Therefore leading into an entire California table grape industry by signing a three-year bargaining agreement with the UFW(United Farm Workers) in the year of 1970. Although Cesar Chavez created the UFW, Huerta created the slogan, “Sí se puede!” as the co-founder. She inspires so many people in the past and present and continues to do so. She inspires many people such as workers, immigrants, women and Hispanic people. She is one of the most influential, inspiring, astonishing and phenomenal figures in history. I know that I have learned something new today, and I hope you did too. We can always be more like Dolores Huerta in everyday life. She inspires me, and maybe, even you too!

Penname : Ash