By Melvin Terry
March 31st was declared Cesar Chavez Day in 2014 by President Barack Obama. Cesar Chavez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) founded along with Delores Huerta the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union.
International Women’s Day was first celebrated in the early 20th century and became a mainstream global holiday in 1977. It helps to focus attention on women and concerns such as gender equality, equal wages, and violence and abuse against women. Another important issue is the lack of attention paid to the substantial contributions of women.
Although Cesar Chavez has been celebrated with a holiday and much has been publicized about him, Delores Huerta was an equal partner. Despite the hindrance of gender bias and sexism, she was critical in organizing the 1965 Delano strike of 5,000 grape workers and was the lead negotiator in the workers’ contract that followed. Huerta organized workers, negotiated contracts, advocated for safer working conditions including the elimination of harmful pesticides. She also fought for unemployment and healthcare benefits for agricultural workers. She came to prominence in the nationwide table grape boycotts in the late 1960s that led to a successful union contract by 1970.
Dolores Huerta is a living civil rights icon. She was born Dolores Clara Fernandez, on April 10, 1930 in Dawson, a small mining town in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Her father Juan Fernández, a farm worker and miner by trade, was a union activist who ran for political office and won a seat in the New Mexico legislature in 1938. Following her parents’ divorce, her mother struggled working as a waitress and cannery worker saving money, which she used to buy a small hotel and restaurant. She was also a community activist which further instilled a vision for service in Dolores.
Unfortunately, discrimination also helped shape Huerta. Imagine, a schoolteacher, prejudiced against Hispanics, accused Huerta of stealing another student’s work, because her papers were too well-written.
During World War II in Los Angeles, American servicemen and white Angelenos attacked and stripped children, teenagers, and youths who wore zoot suits, ostensibly because they considered the outfits, which were made from large amounts of fabric, to be unpatriotic. In 1945 at the end of World War II, white men brutally beat her brother for wearing a Zoot-Suit.
New PaIn 1955 Huerta began her career as an activist when she co-founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO), which led voter registration drives and fought for economic improvements for Hispanics. That year she married fellow activist Ventura Huerta.
At age 58 Dolores suffered a life-threatening assault during a peaceful and lawful protest against the policies of then presidential candidate George Bush in San Francisco. A baton-wielding officer broke four ribs and shattered her spleen. Public outrage resulted in the San Francisco Police Department changing its policies regarding crowd control and police discipline and Dolores was awarded an out of court settlement.
Dolores partnered up with Gloria Steinem in the 1960’s in an alliance that consciously incorporated feminism into her fight for workers' rights, positively impacting how female workers were treated. Additionally, Steinem used her influence in the feminist movement to include issues surrounding race and feminism to show it was no longer a movement just for white women. The Feminist Movement with Dolores Huerta, Gloria Steinem, and Angela Davis
The recipient of many honors, Huerta received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. As of 2015, she was a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, and the President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Did you know that In 2018, Governor Jerry Brown designated April 10th as Dolores Huerta Day in California?
Despite all her accomplishments and accolades, her role in the farm workers movement has long been overshadowed by that of Cesar Chavez; that's true even when it comes to credit for coining the movement's famous slogan, Sí se puede!
This cry to battle has long been credited to Cesar Chaves but here’s the rest of the story:
Back in the 60’s when Dolores and Cesar met with local leaders in the farm worker’s movement, the leaders lamented that the grower lobby that dominated state politics, the legislature and governor was too powerful, and couldn’t be beaten. Cesar and Dolores listened while they explained why fasting and other efforts by farm workers would be fruitless.
“No, no se puede!” (“No, no it can’t be done”), they kept repeating in Spanish. Then Dolores responded, “Si, si se puede!” (“Yes, yes, it can be done”).
Dolores made the slogan the rallying cry for the farm workers’ campaign in Arizona.
President Barack Obama adopted the English version "Yes, we can!" first during the Democratic Party of Illinois primaries leading up to 2004 Illinois elections to the US Senate. Obama acknowledged Huerta as the source of that phrase when he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
Amazingly at 93, Dolores Huerta continues to engage in good trouble, establishing a lasting legacy by developing the next generation of leaders while advocating for the working poor, women, and children. As founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she travels across the country engaging in campaigns and influencing legislation that supports equality and defends civil rights.
