Dolores Huerta | |
|---|---|
 Huerta in 2024 | |
| Born | Dolores Clara Fernández (1930-04-10)April 10, 1930 (age 95) Dawson, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Alma mater | San Joaquin Delta College |
| Known for |
|
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses |
|
| Partner | Richard Chavez (deceased)[1] |
| Children | 11 |
| Parent | Juan Fernández (father) |
 Quotations related toDolores Huerta at Wikiquote | |
Dolores Huerta (born April 10, 1930) is an American labor leader and feminist activist. After working for several years with theCommunity Service Organization (CSO), she co-founded theNational Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activistsCesar Chavez andGilbert Padilla, which eventually merged with theAgricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become theUnited Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize theDelano grape strike in 1965, managing boycott campaigns on the east coast and negotiating with the grape companies to end the strike. Some[a] credit her with inventing the UFW slogan "sí se puede" (transl. 'yes you can').[5]
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 theFeminist Majority Foundation (FMF) to help Latina women become more active and visible in politics, campaigned for women'sreproductive rights, and served as an honorary co-chair of the2017 Women's March inWashington, D.C.
In 2002, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), a civic advocacy organization based inBakersfield, California. She is active inDemocratic politics and has supported the campaigns ofRobert F. Kennedy,George McGovern,Al Gore,Howard Dean,Hillary Clinton,Kamala Harris, andJoe Biden. She is also a supporter ofLGBTQ rights andimmigration reform.
Huerta has received numerous awards for her work as an organizer, including theEleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, theHispanic Heritage Award, and thePuffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. She also received thePresidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. In 2018, California GovernorJerry 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 byRosario Dawson in the 2014 filmCesar Chavez and is the subject of the 2017 documentaryDolores.
Dolores Huerta was born Dolores Fernández on April 10, 1930, in themining town ofDawson, New Mexico.[6] Her father,Juan Fernández, was a coal miner who belonged to theUnited Mine Workers (UMW). Labor unrest caused him to move throughout theWestern United States working as a beet farmer.[7] Her mother, Alicia Chávez, divorced him when Huerta was five years old. She and the children then moved toLas Vegas, Nevada, and later toStockton, California.[8] 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 theLos Angeles Times.[9]
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".[10] 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 theUnited Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), participating in a strike at the cannery in 1937.[11] 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 toExecutive Order 9066.[12] According to Huerta, the restaurant "catered mostly to farm workers".[13]
Huerta, who was "encouraged by her mother to be socially active" according to researcher Christine Beagle, spent ten years as aGirl Scout. She attendedStockton High School, graduating in 1947.[b][16] Huerta described her high school as being "segregated" by both class andrace. After graduating from high school, she married herhigh school sweetheart, Ralph Head,[c] but they divorced three years later. They had two children: Celeste and Lori. She attended theUniversity of the Pacific's Stockton College (laterSan Joaquin Delta College) and graduated in 1953 with a provisional teaching credential.[18]
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:
I couldn't tolerate 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.[19]
Huerta quit teaching after a year.[20] Soon after, in 1955, she metFred Ross, one of the founding members of theCommunity Service Organization (CSO).[21] She initially described him as being "slightlyloco". ARepublican at the time, she was suspicious of Ross's purported communist leanings. After asking theFBI to perform a background check on him, which came back clean, Huerta began attending CSO meetings.[22] Her work with the CSO initially saw her in traditionally feminine roles, such as participating in women's clubs. However, Ross encouraged her to take on more active leadership assignments. By the late 1950s, she was founding new CSO chapters and working as a lobbyist, testifying before theCalifornia State Legislature in support of giving retirement benefits to noncitizens and health coverage to farm workers while opposing the controversialBracero Program.[23] She also advocated for neighborhood improvement projects, taught citizenship classes, and worked on voter registration drives.[24] Dolores met her second husband, Ventura Huerta, while working with the CSO. The two had five children: Fidel, Emiliano, Vincent, Alicia, and Angela.[25] She also met fellow organizerCesar Chavez during her time there.[26]
In 1958, Huerta helped found the Agricultural Workers' Association (AWA).[27] When the AWA dissolved in 1959, Huerta became secretary-treasurer of theAFL-CIO-affiliated Agricultural Workers' Organizing Committee (AWOC). However, according to historian Margaret Rose, she resigned from the organization quickly, "[growing] disenchanted with the group's leadership, direction, and top-down policies".[28] In 1962, frustrated with the CSO's unwillingness to advocate for farmworkers, she co-founded theNational Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with Cesar and fellow organizerGilbert Padilla. Formally, she remained a paid CSO employee, staying in Stockton while Cesar established the organization's headquarters inDelano.[29] Meanwhile, her relationship with Ventura "deteriorated", and they divorced in 1963.[30]
Huerta eventually left her position with the CSO and moved in with Cesar and his family in Delano in 1964.[d][34] According to Cesar, Huerta's role in the early NFWA was "critical".[35] Her duties included making phone calls, collecting union dues, and visiting worker camps in Stockton and nearby towns. She struggled to earn enough money to support her family during this time, taking on temporary work as a translator, substitute teacher, and onion farmer to supplement her NFWA income.[33] In April 1965, she helped the NFWA organize a strike on behalf of rosegrafters employed by the Mount Arbor and Conklin companies.[36] After three days, the companies agreed to increase the strikers' wages but did not agree to a formal contract, which was one of the strikers' demands. The workers returned to their jobs the next day.[37]
We are conscious today of the significance of our present quest. If this road we chart leads to the rights and reforms we demand, if it leads to just wages, humane working conditions, protection from the misuse of pesticides, and to the fundamental right of collective bargaining, if it changes the social order that relegates us to the bottom reaches of society, then in our wake will follow thousands of American farm workers.
On September 8, 1965, union organizerLarry Itliong of the AWOC initiated a strike at nine vineyards in Delano.[39] Itliong approached Cesar for support, and on September 16, the anniversary of theCry of Dolores, Cesar called an NFWA meeting at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Delano. AWOC members addressed the crowd, and attendees urged Cesar to support the strike. While he was initially reluctant, he began drafting plans for the NFWA's entry at a meeting on September 19.[40] It joined the strike the next morning.[41]
The strike was accompanied by boycotts. Huerta and Padilla organized a wine boycott throughout California. Huerta was then sent to direct boycott efforts in New York and New Jersey. She initially organizedsecondary boycotts with local unions, who refused to transport California grapes over theHudson River. This was illegal at the time under theTaft–Hartley Act. After the union eventually released the grapes for distribution, she launched a consumer boycott in coalition with local churches, labor organizations, liberal activists, and student groups. Members of the coalition picketedA&P grocery stores until they stopped selling grapes. Soon after, other stores such asBohack,Finast, Hills, andWaldbaum's followed suit.[42] Huerta spoke in public regularly about the strike, becoming well known for her "firebrand rhetoric".[43]
On August 19, 1965, the AWOC and NFWA merged to form theUnited Farm Workers (UFW).[44] Huerta, along with various members of the former AWOC and NFWA leadership, was appointed vice president of the new organization.[45] She was one of the union's lead negotiators, and according to Rose, was "the union's first contract negotiator".[46] In 1966, she negotiated with several of the struck grape companies—Schenley,Gallo, andFranzia—resulting in a contract favorable to the workers.[47] When the strike ended on July 29, 1970, Huerta helped secure a contract with the remaining companies that increased workers' wages, added new safety rules to protect workers from pesticides, created a health fund, and turned the hiring process from the companies over to the UFW.[48]
_also_Pictured._Photos_by_Ted_Pearson._Feb_19%2c_1973_Slide_20.png)
During the 1970s, Huerta helped organize boycotts of lettuce, Gallo wine, and table grapes. She also entered a romantic relationship withRichard Chavez, Cesar's brother. The two had four children: Juanita, María Elena, Ricky, and Camila. Many criticized Dolores and Richard's cohabitation as "unorthodox", but according to Huerta, she was inspired by thewomen's liberation movement to proceed with the arrangement anyway.[49] She, Richard, and Padilla worked to organize workers in California'sCentral Valley.[50] In 1974, she helped found theCoalition of Labor Union Women, and in 1975, she helped pass theCalifornia Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA), the first law to recognize farmworkers' right tocollective bargaining in the state, as a lobbyist for the UFW.[51] Throughout the late 1970s, she participated in efforts to protect the new law as director of the Citizenship Participation Day Department, the UFW's political wing.[52]
Huerta's relationship with other UFW organizers became tense during the 1970s. Amidst a conflict between the UFW and theInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which had been created by the ALRA, shut down due to lack of funding in 1976.[53] The UFW supported Proposition 14, an amendment to the ALRA that would have addressed funding issues and unclear legal language in the ALRA, initiating a boycott in support of the proposition. The amendment was ultimately defeated by a significant margin.[54] After its failure, Cesar blamed boycott leader Nick Jones for the loss and accused him and fellow organizer Charlie March of being part of a "left-wing conspiracy to undermine the union".[55]
After the defeat of Proposition 14, Cesar moved to reorganize the UFW's boycott offices, leading to conflict with boycott staff and causing Cesar to become increasingly paranoid about opposition. He began to affiliate himself with Charles Dederich, founder of thenew religious movementSynanon.[56] Influenced by Dederich, Cesar began advocating for the use of a confrontational group criticism method called "the Game" in UFW meetings.[57] Huerta supported the implementation of "the Game", but it was controversial among union members.[58]
Huerta came into conflict with several UFW staff members during this period, including lawyer Jerry Cohen and organizers Padilla, Berta Batres, Chris Hatmire, Juan Gutierrez,Marshall Ganz, and brothers Chava and Mario Bustamente.[59] Historian Matthew Garcia notes that she often had conflicts with younger staff members.[60] He also describes an incident where Huerta criticized organizer Lorraine Agtang during a "Game" session, later "intimidat[ing] her" by "staking out her house at night for hours on end".[61] According to one observer quoted by Garcia, Huerta regularly claimed that "infiltrators with revolutionary, radical ideology [were] urging armed struggle" to try to overthrow union leaders.[62] Elements of Garcia's account have been criticized by researcher Stacey K. Sowards, who argues that he takes some of Huerta's statements "out of historical context".[63] While Huerta's relationship with Cesar was often strained during this time, with investigative journalist Miriam Pawel describing her as his "whipping girl", Sowards notes that they still maintained a "very close and supportive relationship".[64]
In the 1980s, Huerta founded Radio Campesina (KUFW), a UFW radio station. She also raised money and gave public speeches supporting the union and testified beforeCongress about farmworkers' benefits, wages, and health issues.[52] In September 1988, she wasbeaten by a police officer at a protest againstGeorge H. W. Bush'scandidacy for president at the St. Francis Hotel inUnion Square, San Francisco. She suffered two fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen, which doctors had to surgically remove.[65] She received an $825,000 settlement from theSan Francisco Police Commission as a result of the beating.[52] The assault also led theSan Francisco Police Department to change its policies forcrowd control and officer discipline.[66]
After the beating, Huerta took a leave of absence from the UFW. She returned to union work after Cesar's death in 1993, supporting strawberry workers, speaking at colleges, attending union meetings, and testifying before Congress.[67] She stepped down from her position as UFW vice president in 1999 to work on other social causes.[68]
While Huerta was influenced by the women's liberation movement of the 1960s, including figures likeGloria Steinem, she initially dismissed feminist activism as a "middle-class phenomenon".[69] During the 1970s, the UFW's position on women's rights was moderated by what historian Ana Raquel Minian refers to as the "idealized figure of the physically disciplined resident/laborer deserving of rights". The union contrasted "sexually respectable" union members with their "sexually depraved" opponents, leading them to oppose contraception while promoting sexual abstinence.[70] Huerta personally opposed both abortion and contraception, both "cornerstones" of the women's liberation movement, and criticized union members for their perceived promiscuity.[71]
Despite this, Huerta called herself a feminist in a 1976 interview withMs. magazine, crediting the women's liberation movement with assuaging her guilt about her divorces.[72] Later, in 1985, she called herself a "born-again feminist" as she began to reassess her beliefs about women's issues.[73] During her leave of absence from the UFW after the 1988 Union Square beating, she worked with theFeminist Majority Foundation (FMF), a nonprofit organization that advocates for reproductive health and women's equality.[74] As part of the FMF's "Feminization of Power" campaign, she encouraged Latina women to run for office in an effort to increase their political visibility.[75] She continued her work with the FMF after she retired from UFW organizing in 1999.[68]
In 2014, Huerta traveled to Colorado to campaign against Colorado's Amendment 67, which would have changed state laws to define "unborn human beings" as people.[76][77] The amendment was defeated in November, with 65% voting for and 35% voting against.[78] She also served as an honorary co-chair of the2017 Women's March inWashington, D.C. alongside Steinem and civil rights activistHarry Belafonte. The march was held to protest a feared regression in women's rights under the firstTrump presidency and was attended by over 4.1 million people.[79][80]
Huerta is president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), a501(c)(3) organization based inBakersfield, California that she founded in 2002 using her $100,000 grant from thePuffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship.[81][82] According to Huerta, the DHF is "a continuation of the non-violent civil rights movement of the 1970s" and its goal is to "get people involved in their communities and participating in democracy".[68][83]
As part of its organizing model, the DHF sends full-time organizers to create "Vecinos Unidos" (transl. 'United Neighbors') groups. These groups teach local residents how to collaborate, interact with government officials, and maneuver within complex political systems to benefit their communities. As of 2016,Vecinos Unidos systems had been implemented in the rural California communities ofArvin,Cutler,Lamont,Orosi,Tulare,Weedpatch, andWoodlake.[68] In 2020, DHF executive director Camila Chavez claimed thatVecinos Unidos organizations had raised "millions of dollars" for road and sidewalk repairs, sewer expansions, streetlight installations, and other infrastructure projects.[84]
In 2016, the DHF was one of the plaintiffs in a suit againstKern High School District (KHSD), alleging that Black and Latino students were unfairly targeted for disciplinary actions. The plaintiffs ultimately settled with the district on the condition that the DHF and other civil rights organizations would monitor the district to ensure it ended its discriminatory practices.[85] Later, in 2018, the DHF presented a map to the KHSD outlining possible school district boundaries. This came after Latino organizations won a lawsuit against the district in which they argued that the original boundaries disenfranchised Latino voters in school board elections.[86][87] As of 2023, Camila Chavez, Huerta's youngest daughter, is the executive director of the DHF.[81][88] In 2025, the organization broke ground on the "Peace and Justice Cultural Center", a $34.8 million building inKern County, California designed to promote civic education, community organizing, and cultural preservation.[89]
Huerta is an honorary co-chair of theDemocratic Socialists of America.[90] During the1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Huerta and the UFW campaigned on behalf of liberalDemocratRobert F. Kennedy.[91] As part of her union responsibilities, she attended Kennedy's primary victory speech on June 5, 1968, where he wasassassinated.[91] In a later interview, she called Kennedy's assassination "the death of our future".[92] She served as a co-chair for South Dakota SenatorGeorge McGovern's California delegation at the1972 Democratic National Convention (DNC) alongside politiciansWillie Brown andJohn Burton.[93] She also worked onAl Gore's2000 presidential campaign.[75] She endorsed former Vermont GovernorHoward Dean during the2004 Democratic primaries.[94] During the2008 Democratic primaries, she campaigned forHillary Clinton and served as a delegate for her at theDNC.[95][96]
.jpg)
During the2016 Democratic primaries, Huerta endorsed Clinton as the Democratic nominee once again, starring in an ad for her campaign during theCalifornia primary.[97] She claimed in a tweet that when she offered to translate for supporters of Clinton's rival,Bernie Sanders, during theNevada caucus, they responded by chanting "English only!" The tweet, and Huerta's support for Clinton in general, proved controversial. Some allege that she misinterpreted the crowd's message and that they were only calling for a "neutral moderator" to lead the discussion rather than a Clinton supporter. Others claim that Huerta was "booed and hissed at for her efforts to translate".[98]
After the caucus, actressAmerica Ferrera tweeted in support of Huerta while actressesGaby Hoffmann andSusan Sarandon, who were allegedly present at the caucus, claimed that there were no "English only" chants. Later, actressRosario Dawson, who plays Huerta in the filmCesar Chavez, wrote an open letter criticizing Huerta for "misrepresenting" Sanders's positions on issues concerning the Latino community.[98] Huerta responded by alleging that the Sanders campaign had "ask[ed]" Dawson to "attack [her]" and that "Clinton [would] get more things done as president" but that she "[didn't] hold anything against" Dawson and that "when the dust settle[d]... [they were] going to be together".[99]
During the2020 Democratic primaries, Huerta endorsed California SenatorKamala Harris, criticizing fellow candidateJoe Biden for discussing border crossings in a way that she felt was "just like the Republicans". However, she later endorsed Biden for president in May 2020.[100] During the2024 United States presidential election, she endorsed Harris once again, stating:
I've known Kamala Harris for a long time — and I've seen firsthand how she fights relentlessly for Latino communities, working families, and for every American.[101]
During the 1960s and 70s, the UFW was generally supportive ofLGBTQ rights. In an official statement made during the 1970s, the union publicly endorsed adding "sexual orientation" as a protected characteristic under California civil law.[102] Huerta recalled speaking against discrimination based on sexual orientation at a hearing in the "70s or early 80s". In a 2006 speech, she spoke in favor ofsame-sex marriage:
Gay marriage[,] that's a big issue. Come to think about it, if Thelma and Louise get married, does that affect your paycheck? Does that affect any part of your life? Those are privacy, Constitutional issues. Benito Juárez[,] we just celebrate his birthday a few days ago—what was the great saying that he said? "Respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz"—respecting other people's rights is peace. How many children a woman chooses to have, who one chooses to live with and marry—that is your constitutional right.[103]
In 2005, Huerta campaigned alongside California AssemblymanMark Leno to passAssembly Bill 19, which would have legalized same-sex marriage in the state.[104] The bill passed in theCalifornia State Assembly but was vetoed by then-California GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger.[105] She also spoke at apride celebration inFresno, California in 2021, advocating for LGBTQ rights and claiming that discriminatory rhetoric against LGBTQ people "leads to violence".[106] The Dolores Huerta Foundation endorsedCalifornia Proposition 3 in 2024, which removed sections in the state constitution that discussed marriage as being between "a man and a woman" and affirmed marriage as a "fundamental right".[107][108] The proposition ultimately passed, with 63% of voters supporting it and 37% opposed.[107]
Huerta has been described as "pro-immigrant".[109] In 1994, Huerta campaigned againstCalifornia Proposition 187, which would have denied healthcare and education services toundocumented immigrants. Huerta opposed the legislation, characterizing it and the anti-immigrant rhetoric that inspired it as being rooted in "racial anxiety".[110] She also condemned Trump's 2017 rescission of theDeferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, calling it "a step above slavery" while criticizing him for his racially inflammatory rhetoric.[111] In 2018, she spoke at anEl Paso rally in protest of Trump'sfamily separation policy.[112] Later, under the Biden presidency, she supported a "comprehensive immigration reform plan".[113]
Some have criticized Huerta and the UFW for "harming" undocumented workers, however.[63] In 1963, she lobbied for the repeal of theBracero Program, aguest farmworker program initiated to meet increased demand for crops duringWorld War II.[114] Many Latino activists opposed the program, believing that bracero guest workers took jobs from Latino citizens.[115] Critics of Huerta and the UFW claim that after the program's repeal, the union, under Huerta's leadership, frequently reported undocumented workers to theImmigration and Naturalization Service (nowU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; ICE), justifying their actions by characterizing undocumented workers asstrikebreakers. Huerta also received criticism in 2014 for her support ofBarack Obama despite "delays" to immigration reform under his administration.[116]
TheCalifornia State Senate awarded Huerta "Outstanding Labor Leader" in 1984.[75] She also received theEleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1988. She received the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award, theEugene V. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, and the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award in 1993.[117] She was also the first Latina inducted into theNational Women's Hall of Fame that year.[118] In 1998, she was named "Women of the Year" byMs. magazine.Ladies' Home Journal listed her as one of the "100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century".
In 2000, Huerta received theHispanic Heritage Award.[75] She won the $100,000 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship in 2002.[68] Later, in 2009, she received the UCLA medal, the highest honor bestowed by the university.[119] In 2012, she received thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the "highest civilian award" given by thepresident of the United States.[98] In 2015 the Mexican Government made her a member of theOrder of the Aztec Eagle, the highest Mexicanorder awarded to foreigners.[120] She also received the Presidential Medallion fromCalifornia State University, Los Angeles in 2017 at the university's 20th Billie Jean King & Friends Gala.[121]
In July 2018, California GovernorJerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 2644. First introduced by AssemblywomanEloise Gómez Reyes, the bill designates April 10 as "Dolores Huerta Day".[122] In March 2019, Washington GovernorJay Inslee signed a measure also designating April 10 each year as Dolores Huerta Day.[123] In 2020, she received theRipple of Hope Award from theRobert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.[124]
Huerta holds honorary degrees fromMills College,Princeton University, theUniversity of the Pacific, and theUniversity of Southern California.[125][126] Various schools are named after her, including an elementary school inTulsa and middle schools inBurbank andSan Jose.[125][127] The intersection of East 1st and Chicago streets in the Los Angeles neighborhood ofBoyle Heights is named Dolores Huerta Square.[128] InFort Worth, Texas, a portion of State Highway 183 is named in her honor.[129] Asteroid6849 Doloreshuerta, first discovered by American astronomersEleanor Helin andSchelte Bus in 1979, is also named after her.[130]
Huerta is featured, alongside other Chicana activists, in the 2009 documentaryA Crushing Love, directed bySylvia Morales.[131] In the 2014 filmCesar Chavez, directed byDiego Luna, she is played by Rosario Dawson.[132] She is also the subject of the 2017 documentaryDolores, directed by Peter Bratt.Dolores features interviews with Huerta's children, who "express pride in their mother" but "recall the deep unhappiness they felt when growing up, often without her around".[133] The documentary discusses also discusses Huerta's "burgeoning feminism in the 60s and 70s" and shows footage of her beating at the St. Francis Hotel in 1988.[134][135] The operaDolores by Marella Martin Koch and Nicolás Lell Benavides premiered on August 2, 2025.[136]
Organized Labour portal
Hispanic and Latino Americans portal
Society portal
Feminism portal
United States portal
History portal
