Dolores was born Dolores Clara
Fernandez on April 10, 1930 in the mining town of Dawson, in northern New
Mexico. Her father, Juan Fernandez, was a seasonal farm worker, miner,
union activist and later a State Assemblyman. Her parents divorced
when she was three years old and her mother, Alicia Chavez, relocated Dolores
and her two brothers to Stockton, California in the predominantly agricultural
San Joaquin Valley. Alicia raised Dolores, along with her two brothers,
and later two sisters. Her mother worked as a cook in two restaurants to
support her family during the Great Depression. Through prudence she
became a businesswoman when she purchased two hotel businesses and a restaurant.
While her mother worked feverishly to support the family, Dolores and her
siblings were cared for by her grandfather, Herculano Chavez. He was a
miner who became disabled in a mining accident in New Mexico in which he lost
one of his sons, Marcial Chavez at age seventeen. In helping to
raise Dolores, Herculano would often say that Dolores had seven tongues because
she spoke so fast.
Dolores and her siblings were raised in one of the two hotels, the 60-room
Richard’s Hotel, that her mother purchased from a Japanese family that was being
relocated to a concentration camp. Her mother often put up farm workers and
their families for free in the hotels. Dolores and her siblings worked in the
daily cleaning and renting of the rooms at the Richard’s Hotel. Her mother
taught Dolores the importance of community activism and supported Dolores, and
her Girl Scout troop. Dolores remained a girl scout until age 18 when she
graduated from Stockton High School in 1947. As a girl scout, Dolores’ troop
took on many community endeavors including fundraising activities to support the USO during World War II. Dolores’ troop was quite unique for its time in that
it was truly representative of the international community of Stockton. It was
made up of girls from diverse ethnical backgrounds including African-American,
Chinese, Filipino, Latino and Anglo at a time when racism was prevalent. In
fact it was as a teen-ager in high school when Dolores first experienced
racism. An annual national Girl Scout essay contest was held and Dolores was
one of two girls who won, she placed second throughout the nation. The second
place prize was a trip to the Hopi Indian Reservation in Gallup, New Mexico.
When Dolores sought to seek the time off from school to go on this trip she was
granted permission from all of her teachers but denied the time off from school
by the Dean of Girls. Dolores felt that this was because she was the first
Latina to win this annual contest and many Anglo girls had previously been given
the time off from school for winning the very same award. Dolores also
experienced more institutional racism when, in that same senior year of high
school she was given a final grade of a “C” in English after receiving numerous
“A’s on term papers, reports and essays. When she approached the teacher in
regard to her final grade, the teacher told her she gave her the “C” because she
“knew” that the essays and reports were written by someone else because Dolores
could not have written them herself.
The day
World War II ended, festivities were held throughout the town celebrating “VJ”
(Victory over the Japanese). Her brother Marshall dressed up in a Zoot-suit to
go out and celebrate. Dolores was going to meet up with him at a dance later in
the evening. As Dolores and her friend were walking to the dance they came upon
a person huddled on the ground of a door stoop. He was badly beaten with his
clothes ripped to shreds. The beating and ripped clothing was a result of
racism against young Latinos, and their way of dress in the 40’s. When
Dolores stopped to help the young man up, it turned out to be her brother
Marshall, who for the first time had dressed in a Zoot-suit.
Alicia Chavez also
instilled the love of the arts in her children. She purchased season tickets
for her children to the symphony and theatre to see live music performances of
renowned artists, although she herself could not attend because she had to
work. Alicia enrolled Dolores in piano, violin, and dance lessons. Dolores
wanted to become a flamenco dancer when she grew up. As a teenager, Dolores was
a majorette and participated in many parades throughout the region along with
her future sister-in-law, Rae Atilano.
Alicia
Chavez taught Dolores how to be generous and caring for others. Because of her
mother’s community activism, Dolores learned to be outspoken. After high
school, Dolores attended college and received a teaching certificate. She was
the first of her family to receive a higher education. She taught grammar
school but decided to resign from teaching because, in her words, “I couldn’t
stand seeing farm worker children come to class hungry and in need of shoes. I
thought I could do more by organizing their parents than by trying to teach
their hungry children.”
In
1955, she became founding members of the Stockton Chapter of the Community
Service Organization (“CSO”), a grass roots organization started by Fred Ross.
Her mother later joined the organization as well and received an award for her
community activism.
In
recognizing the needs of farm workers while working for the CSO, Dolores
organized and founded the Agricultural Workers Association (“AWA”) in 1960. She
became a fearless lobbyist in Sacramento, at the age of twenty-five (25), a time
where few women, not to mention women of color, dared to enter the State Capital
and National Capital to lobby legislators. Her efforts paid off in 1961 when
she succeeded in obtaining the removal of citizenship requirements from pension
and public assistance programs for legal residents of the United States and
California State disability insurance for farm workers.
She was
also instrumental in passage of legislation allowing the right to vote in
Spanish, and the right of individuals to take the drivers license examination in
their native language. In 1962 she lobbied in Washington D.C. for an end to the
“captive labor” Bracero Program. In 1963 she was instrumental in securing Aid
for Dependent Families (“AFDC”), for the unemployed and underemployed,
It was
through her work with Fred Ross and the CSO that Dolores met Cesar Chavez. It
was Fred who recruited and organized both Dolores and Cesar and trained them in
community organizing. The CSO battled segregation, police brutality, led voter
registration drives, pushed for improved public services in Latino communities
throughout the State of California and fought to enact new legislation. The CSO
played a leading role in electing the first Latino in over one hundred years, Ed
Roybal, to the Los Angeles City Council.
While
working with the CSO, both Cesar and Dolores realized the immediate need to
organize farm workers because of their dire conditions. In 1962 after the CSO
turned down Cesar’s request, as their nation director, to organize farm workers,
Cesar and Dolores resigned from their jobs with CSO in order to do so. At that
time she was a divorced mother with seven children. She later joined Cesar and
his family in Delano, California where they began the National Farm Workers
Association (“NFWA”), the predecessor to the United Farm Workers Union (“UFW”).
By 1965
Dolores and Cesar organized farm workers and their families throughout the San
Joaquin Valley utilizing the organizing techniques taught them by Fred Ross. On
September 8th of that year, Filipino members of the Agricultural Workers
Organizing Committee (the successor of the “AWA” the same organization founded
by Dolores) demanded higher wages and struck Delano area grape growers.
Although Dolores and Cesar had planned to organize farm workers for several more
years before confronting the large corporate grape industry, they could not
ignore their Filipino brothers’ request. On September 16, 1965 the NFWA voted
to join in the strike. Over 5,000 grape workers walked off their jobs. The
strike would last five years.
In
1966, Dolores negotiated the first NFWA contract with the Schenley Wine
Company. This was the first time in the history of the United States that a
negotiating committee comprised of farm workers and a young Latina single mother
of seven, negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with an agricultural
corporation. The grape strike continued and the two organizations (“AWA” and
“NFWA”) merged in 1967 to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee
(“UFWOC”). As the main UFWOC negotiator, Dolores successfully negotiated more
contracts for farm workers, she also set up hiring halls, the farm workers ranch
committees, administrated the contracts and conducted over one hundred grievance
and arbitration procedures on behalf of the workers.
These
contracts established the first medical and pension benefits for farm workers
and safety plans in the history of agriculture. Dolores spoke out early against
toxic pesticides that threaten farm workers, consumers, and the environment.
The early UFWOC agreements required growers to stop using such dangerous
pesticides as DDT and Parathyon. Dolores organized field strikes, directed the
grape, lettuce and Gallo Wine boycotts, and led the farm workers in campaigns
for political candidates. As a legislative advocate, Dolores became one of the
UFW’s most visible spokespersons. Robert F. Kennedy acknowledged her, the farm
workers, and Cesar’s help in winning the 1968 California Democratic Presidential
Primary moments before he was assassinated in Los Angeles.
Dolores
directed the UFW’s national grape boycott that resulted in the entire California
table grape industry signing a three-year collective bargaining agreement with
the United Farm Workers.
In 1973 the grape contracts
expired and the grape growers signed sweetheart contracts with the Teamsters
Union. Dolores organized picket lines and continued to lobby. The UFW
continued to organize not only the grape workers but the workers in the
vegetable industry as well until violence erupted and farm workers were being
killed. Once again the UFW turned to the consumer boycott. Dolores directed
the east coast boycott of grapes, lettuce, and Gallo wines. The boycott
resulted in the enactment of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of
1975, the first law of its kind that grants farm workers the right to
collectively organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions.
In 1974
she was instrumental in securing unemployment benefits for farm workers. In
1985 Dolores lobbied against federal guest worker programs and spearheaded
legislation granting amnesty for farm workers that had lived, worked, and paid
taxes in the United States for many years but unable to enjoy the privileges of
citizenship. This resulted in the Immigration Act of 1985 in which 1,400,000
farm workers received amnesty.
Dolores worked with
Cesar for over thirty years until his death in 1993. Together they founded the
Robert Kennedy Medical Plan, the Juan De La Cruz Farm Workers Pension Fund, the
Farm Workers Credit Union, the first medical and pension plans and credit union
in history for farm workers. They also formed the National Farm Workers Service
Center (visit
www.NSWSC.org) which today provides
affordable housing with over 3,700 rental and 600 single family dwelling units,
and educational radio with over nine Spanish Speaking Radio Stations throughout
California, Washington and Arizona.
In 2002
Dolores was the second recipient of the Puffin Foundation/Nation Institute Award
for Creative Citizenship (visit
www.nationinstitute.org) that included a
$100,000 grant which she utilized to establish her long time dream, the Dolores
Huerta Foundation’s Organizing Institute.
The
Foundation’s mission is to focus on community organizing and leadership training
in low-income under-represented communities.
At age
seventy-five (75), Dolores Huerta still works long hours serving as President of
the Dolores Huerta Foundation leading the development of the organization and
the Organizing Institute as well as the community organizing. It is not unusual
to find her traveling regularly to cities across North America educating the
public on public policy issues affecting immigrants, women, and youth. She
speaks at colleges and organizations throughout the country in support of “La
Causa”.
Dolores
is a board member for the Feminist Majority Foundation (visit
www.feminist.org) that advocates for
gender balance. She is also teaching a class on community organizing at the
University of Southern California.
Dolores C. Huerta is
also Secretary-Treasure Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO
(UFW). She is the mother of 11 children, 20 grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren.
AWARDS
As an advocate for immigrant workers rights, Dolores has been arrested
twenty-two times for non-violent peaceful union activities. In 1984 the
California state senate bestowed upon her the Outstanding Labor Leader Award.
In 1993 Dolores was inducted into the Nation Women’s Hall of Fame. That same
year she received the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Roger Baldwin Medal
of Liberty Award; the Eugene V. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, and
the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award. She is also the recipient of the
Consumers’ Union Trumpeter’s Award. In 1998 she was one of the three Ms.
Magazine’s “Women of the Year”, and the Ladies Home Journal’s
“100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century”. In 1998 Dolores
received the United States Presidential Eleanor D. Roosevelt Human Rights Award
from President Clinton. On December 8, 2002 she received the Nation/Puffin
Award for Creative Citizenship. In 2003 she received a short term appointment
as a University of California Regent.
HONORARY DOCTORATE DEGREES
Dolores
has received honorary doctorate degrees from:
·
New College of San Francisco, 1990,
·
San Francisco State University, 1993
·
SUNY. New Paltz University, 1999
·
Cal State University, Northridge in
2003
·
SUNY School of Law in 2004
·
Wayne State University in 2004
COMMEMORATIONS
Elementary Schools:
Dolores Huerta Elementary School in Norwalk, California
Dolores Huerta Learning Academy in Oakland, California
Dolores Huerta Elementary School in Stockton, California
Dolores Huerta Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas
Dolores Huerta Elementary School in Lennox, California
High
Schools:
Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School in Pueblo, Colorado
