Civil rights leader Huerta to discuss Latino issues, election, Nov. 2
Dolores Huerta, an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, co-founded the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), will join National Press Club President Michael Freedman at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, to discuss a range of topics, including her foundation, her work on feminist issues, efforts to gain Senate passage of pandemic relief, the U.S. Latino community and the Latino vote.
The Q&A will livestream on the Club website and the Club's YouTube channel.
The one-hour program is free and accessible to both the media and general public. Viewers are invited to submit their questions in advance or during the livestream by emailing their queries to [email protected]. The talk is sponsored by the Club's Events Team.
Huerta has been a leading figure in American social justice for decades. The states of California, Washington and Kansas recognize her birthday, April 10, as Dolores Huerta Day. She is the subject of Mexican American corridos (ballads) and murals; streets, schools and plazas carry her name. In community, she is simply “Dolores.” In 2012, when President Barack Obama honored Dolores with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he thanked her for graciously allowing him to translate her “Si Se Puede” call to action for his campaign slogan, “Yes, We Can.”
Huerta and Chavez are best known for spearheading a national farmworker movement. The United Farmworkers of America for the first time elevated issues such as decent pay, health care and protection against poisonous pesticides. Huerta, the first woman to sit at the negotiating table with agricultural corporate leaders, was able to get growers to agree to the nation’s first farmworker contracts.
The Dolores Huerta Foundation connects groundbreaking community-based organizing to state and national movements to register and educate voters; advocate for education reform; bring about infrastructure improvements in low-income communities; work for greater equality for the LGBT community; and develop leaders.
On Dec. 10, Huerta will become one of the 2020 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Laureates, joining Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Colin Kapernick, human rights activist, former NFL quarterback and co-founder of Know Your Rights Campaign; Dan Schulman, president and chief executive officer of PayPal; and Dan Springer, chief executive of DocuSign.
The 2017 critically acclaimed documentary "Dolores" chronicles Huerta’s life -- from her childhood in Stockton, Calif., through her years as a civil rights leader. It explores her role in the headline-making grape boycott launched in 1965 and in the feminist movement of the 1970s. Her fight for racial and labor justice led to her becoming “one of the most defiant feminists of the 20th century,” the documentary asserts. The producers called the film a “superhero movie. Huerta is truly an American pioneer who has affected great change in the United States [and is] among the most important, yet least-known, activists in American history."
At 90, she continues to lead at the frontlines. Forced by the pandemic to abandon her relentless travel schedule, she now works at home, where she concentrates on promoting census and voter turnout, among other issues.