S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on this episode of KPBS Midday Edition , remembering the life and legacy of civil rights icon Dolores Huerta. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Welcome back. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. Civil rights icon , feminist and labor leader Dolores Huerta passed away this morning at 96 at her home in Bakersfield. So we are looking back at her life and legacy in the late 60s. Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers Union , or UFW. She led the historic five year Delano grape strike , which won higher wages and working conditions for farm workers. Here's a clip from 1966 , courtesy of KQED archives. Of her delivering a speech in Sacramento demanding a collective bargaining law for farm workers.
S2: Developments of the past seven months are only a slight indication of what is to come. The workers are on the rise. There will be strikes all over the state and throughout the country because Delano has shown what can be done , and the workers know that they are no longer alone.
S1: It was just a few years later. Her organizing efforts helped pass the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. In the decades after where to continued fighting for civil rights and fair labor practices across the country. She founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation , which supports volunteer organizations pursuing social justice. And she received a lot of recognition for her advocacy over the years , including a Presidential Medal of Freedom. I spoke with Huerta back in May of 2024. At the time , she had just been honored with a lifetime achievement award at San Diego's annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast. I started out by asking Huerta where she first found her voice as a young activist.
S3: I was always an activist , but I was active in Girl Scouts for ten years from the time I was eight till the time I was 18 years old. I was active in my church groups. I was active in local civic organizations. When I was a teenager , I formed my own organization to have recreational activities for the kids that I grew up with , because they were mostly kids of color that were always being discriminated. And then when I found out about how you could really change things by getting people organized at the grassroots level and taking direct action and , you know , advocating for legislation , you know , getting people to get up and register to vote and then making some real differences in terms of , uh , getting policies and laws passed that could be implemented. Then you might say finding my voice was a little gradual , because at first , like many , many people , I didn't know I had that power to make a change and to make a difference. So once I found that voice and I , you know , been using it ever since. Wow.
S4: Wow. Well , I want to talk about that grape strike of 1965. Looking back , what was it like organizing such a groundbreaking boycott?
S3: Well , organizing the boycott wasn't as hard as organizing the workers initially organizing the boycott. We had farmworkers that went to New York City and to Chicago and to , you know , Texas and other places , even to Canada , and to ask people not to buy grapes. And they went to community meetings , they went to labor meetings , they went to churches. And I just told people about the plight of the farm workers and asked them just not to buy grapes and not to shop at the stores that carry grapes. Okay , so we were able to get 17 million people not to buy grapes , and that brought the growers to the table to negotiate. Because the whole idea of organizing poor people , a low income people , is that you have to convince people that they have power. And the way that we do that and we still do that method with my foundation is we have meetings in people's homes , like house meetings. It's something like a Tupperware party or a jewelry party where you get a few people together , but instead of instead of talking about jewelry , you talk about issues and about issues in their community , and then you give them examples of how people like themselves can actually change things. If they come together , they work together , and they don't have to have a high school diploma , or they don't even have to learn how to speak English. But if they come together and they used their political will by getting people registered to vote , turning them out to vote , putting pressure on the politicians and introducing legislation that that's the way you win. And so we organize people house by house throughout the Central Valley of California. Well , actually , we started organizing in 1962 , and our plan was not to go on strike till 1968. We were going to organize for five years. But then what happened? The Filipino workers , they went out on strike before we had a chance to finish our organizing plan. So then we had to cut our plan short and support the Filipino workers. But we did that grassroots , house by house , person by person organizing. We did that for three years before we had we called a strike.
S4: Well , you faced plenty of challenges and violence on the picket lines. What hardships were you subjected to during the strike?
S3: Well , during the strike , We received all of the food and clothes that we had from people that gave us donations. Uh , it was very dangerous because we were on those picket lines. Uh , the growers and their , their agents would draw rifles and guns on us. They would spray pesticides on us. They would spray dust on us. Uh , and we were out there every day from , you know , really early in the morning as soon as the the , the sun broke , like , from 6:00 in the morning and we would be out until 6:00 in the evening until the sun went down. And I'm talking to the strikebreakers that they kept bringing in. Day after day they brought in. We would get people to walk out of the field , and the next day there would be more people in the field because we're so close to the Mexican border that they could bring people in overnight , basically. So , you know , it was it was just very tedious. But in order to keep up our spirits , we sang freedom songs. We do. We would do chants , you know , we would play little games because we were out there in the hot sun all day long on the picket line. So it was hard. It was very hard. And of course , and none of us had any money. There were some organizations like like the friends , the Quakers , then eventually some of the labor unions , like the autoworkers union , who was then a part of the AFL CIO at that point in time. Then they would give us money to help us pay our rent and stuff. But it was very hard. I mean , we were it was a lot of deprivation , but that was also very exciting. I mean , this is like a once in a lifetime experience. This is something that you cannot duplicate. You know , it happened. We were very blessed to be part of it. Wow.
S4: Wow. And how did you challenge discrimination within the movement?
S3: Well , I would say that during the strike , we there really wasn't a lot of discrimination during the strike because everybody was just out there. It's like when you're , you know , in a war , everybody's out there on the front line. I think what happens afterwards is when , as I say , the dust settles and then you start , you know , getting the positions and and then this is where the women get left out. You know , I was the only woman on the executive board of the UFW for many , many years. And then when I would try to get other women to join , they then they would sometimes one of the women , I finally got her to get on the board. Then her father got sick and then she quit the board and I said , well , you don't have to quit , you know , take a leave of absence. You know , it's a it's it was very , very hard. But now today , I just I just have to report this , that , you know , I left the , the union in 2002. But today the UFW has a majority of women on the board. And the president is a woman. Her name is Teresa Romero.
S4: Well , I mean , I got to ask you this. You know , you also have 11 children. What was it like balancing raising your kids while organizing for better working conditions for so many other families.
S3: Well , initially when we started the union , I left some of my children. When we started the union , I only had seven. And so I left some of my younger ones. I left them in Stockton , California with some relatives until I could bring them back. I brought them back. And it's interesting when I , when I finally went back and got my kids and the strikes started like two weeks later. So it was bad timing , but I had a lot of help from a lot of people to to make that happen. And then in the union , we actually set up a daycare. Uh , during the strike , we had to set up a daycare because we had so many women on the picket line. And we had to have some , you know , have the children taken care of. So we actually had the first , uh , daycare for farm workers in the state of California. And there was a wonderful woman from the Bay area , Betty Meredith , who helped us set that up. You know. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Well , many of your kids became activists , too , right? Yeah.
S3: Yeah. All my children , all of my children are are activists. And this is what I like to say to women , especially. I do not think that they just because they're active in political life or civic life , that somehow it's going to hurt your children. My children grew up to be very resourceful. My oldest son is a doctor. He's a medical doctor , a family practice doctor. My second son , Emilio , is an attorney. I have daughters who are nurses who are teachers. You know , the , uh. And it's a really good. And my son , who's a chef , one of my sons is an artist. They're all very different , by the way. No matter how many you have , they're all going to be different. Okay. But. So if you give your children , I think , uh , you give them values and you make them believe in them in themselves , that they can do things and and they will they will grow into into leaders themselves. All of my children have been on the picket lines and some of them have been arrested with me. Some have been arrested , but doing other activities when they were not with me , you know. But it's made them very strong , strong , independent and resourceful.
S4: Well , si se puede. Yes , yes we can. Uh , we can all thank you for that famous slogan. How did you come up with it?
S3: Well , actually , it was in Arizona in 1972. Uh , Cesar was doing a 25 day water only fast. He was going without food for 25 days. Uh , because the governor there had signed a law that if farmworkers went on strike , they could go to jail. If anybody said boycott anything , they could also go to jail. And so we were protesting that law. Well , Cesar was fasting. And so when I went to some of the local Latino leaders and I asked him to support our campaign , they told me , you can't do that here in Arizona. Not in California. Yes , you can do a lot of a lot of this work , but here in Arizona you can. And my response to them was see separately. Yes we can here in Arizona also. So that became the battle cry for that campaign in 1972. And we finally won because they took that law to the state Supreme Court of Arizona and it was found unconstitutional.
S4: Well , I mean , today , I mean , how does it make you feel when you hear other activists use it?
S3: Well , it makes me feel really good. It makes me feel really good. Yeah. Because what the chat means , it doesn't just mean. Yes , we can. It means yes , I can. In Spanish , it has that double connotation. And that's the main thing that we want to do as organizers is to let people know that , yes , they have the power , that they can change things , and all they have to do is become activists and make it happen.
S4: I mean , you've accomplished so much and you've inspired generations to fight for a better future. I'm wondering if you have a proudest moment of your career in organizing.
S3: Well , I have so many that I am proud of , of the work that I've been blessed to be able to do , and I usually try to gauge my work. I live with the outcomes and some of them have been pretty huge. You know , some some of the legislation that I worked on and passed in Sacramento and in Washington DC , but I think one of the biggest ones is the amnesty bill of 1986 , where we were able to pass a law that allowed people to become legal residents of the United States of America. And hundreds of thousands of people have then gotten the legalization status. And this law was actually , uh , let me put it this way. I worked with , uh , Ted Kennedy , uh , Howard Berman from California. Schumer from New York. And Peter Rodino from new Jersey. And these four individuals , uh , you know , really work hard to pass that law. And it was the , um , the amnesty bill of 1986. Unfortunately , a lot of people give Reagan the credit for the law because he signed the law , you know , but he really didn't do anything to work to pass it. And the reason Reagan signed it is because we put a lot of pressure on him to , to sign that wall. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Well , you actually started out as a teacher. So I'm wondering what role can education play in labor organizing and advocating for workers rights , especially the things we take for granted that labor unions have won?
S3: Well , education for me is the foundation of our democracy. And we know education is a challenge right now. And so when we see the state that our country is right now and the division that exists in our country. And when we look at what is that division? The people that I call them the haters. Okay. Uh , that that comes from ignorance. And so education is the way that we fix this. But we know that our education is starved , that teachers are not making enough money. They don't get the support that they need in the classroom. Our class sizes are too large. The curriculum does not include gender studies , labor studies , ethnic studies , you know. And so this ignorance is going to be perpetuated. Uh , if we don't do something , then the other thing is that our educational system , the way that it's funded with property taxes , that means that poor communities get less money. Wealthy communities get more money for education. And we have to change this. We have to fund education the way that we fund our Defense Department. Our Defense Department has a lot of money. It's the biggest budget in our in our country. So our education budget should be the biggest budget. So we have a lot of work to do on education. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Well I mean it sounds like , you know , ignorance could certainly be our downfall.
S3: It is.
S4: You recently received , uh , the lifetime achievement award at San Diego's annual Harvey Milk diversity Breakfast. And you had a relationship with Harvey Milk. Can you tell me something about that? Yes.
S3: Yes. I was very blessed to know Harvey Milk in San Francisco. And the relationship developed because he was a great supporter of the farmworkers union. And and at a time when a lot of people were not that really friendly to our organizing efforts. But he always was he was always there for us supporting the boycott. And I had the good fortune of being able to go canvassing for him when he was running for office. Wow.
S4: Wow. Well , what can we learn from his legacy?
S3: Well , number one , determination and not giving up. You know , keeping the course very steady , even though it was very hard for him , even though he had setbacks , he never gave up. You have to be you have to be determined and and you can never quit. Because once you quit , then you lose. So you have to continue until you win. And these are the lessons that we have. And , uh , it's , uh , really painful when we have those losses. Like we lose leaders like that. But then I think that we have a commitment to continue their legacies and to promote their legacies , to promote their stories so that other people can be inspired to continue the movement. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Well , I mean , what advice do you have for young labor organizers who are just getting started? What do you want them to hear?
S3: Well , we know that the labor movement is a very important part of society because the labor movement really represents the majority of people in the country. The working people are the majority of the population in the United States. All the people seem to forget about them all the time , or look at labor unions as special interests. This is the fabric of our society , is our working people. And so that's why labor unions are so important , because they represent workers. You know , I always like to ask audiences. I ask , does anybody in the audience know how we got the eight hour day? You know , we celebrate May day because May day is , uh , celebrates the fact that we got the eight hour work day. But when I asked people in the audience , how many of you know what happened to the labor leaders? That part for the eight hour day. Sometimes you'll have 1 or 2 hands go up in the audience. The labor leaders that fought for the eight hour day were executed. They were hung , and people don't know that. But we all celebrate working hours a day , So it's very important that all of this history be again put into our curriculums so that people will know how we got these benefits that we that we enjoy today. Absolutely.
S4: Absolutely. And the the labor movement is very much a part of the civil rights movement. When Doctor King was assassinated , it was just before a speech he was to give for sanitation workers in Memphis , Tennessee. What can you tell me about that connection?
S3: Well , we're all connected together. Uh , the labor movement , the civil rights movement , uh , LGBTQ movement , the women's movement , you know , our environmental movement , we're all working together. You know , we have to work together because we are really asking , uh , what we're working for is for social , economic justice , you know , for everybody. And so we just have to keep remembering that we can't do. We can't do it alone. The only way that we can win is if we all work together. We have to put our forces our in , and use our collective power in our collective actions to make these things happen. We can't work in silos anymore. That doesn't work. We've all got to. We've all got to bond together and take direct action together.
S1: That was my conversation with civil rights icon Dolores Huerta , recorded in May of 2024. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
