Q&A with Dolores Huerta: Celebrating Cesar Chavez’s life and legacy
Dolores Huerta.
Last May, civil rights advocate and co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association Dolores Huerta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Before meeting President Barack Obama in the White House’s East Room, Huerta waited outside Pennsylvania Avenue to be cleared by security. On the cusp of receiving the nation’s highest civilian honor, the security guard asked:
“Who are you, again?”
One of Huerta’s 11 children was quick to respond. “She’s Dolores Huerta, we are here for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Nearly a year later, after receiving that honor, Huerta remembers the early stages of the UFW and the Cesar Chavez legacy as ones with humble beginnings.
“Cesar was like a beacon,” Huerta recalls. “People will continue to get inspiration from Cesar because he was a person who was not for himself. He was not an opportunist. He was there for the people.”
Dolores Huerta talks to VOXXI about Cesar Chavez and issues Hispanics face today
Chavez, who would have celebrated his 86th birthday this Sunday, has arguably become one of the most prominent Hispanic symbols, inspiring change and perseverance.
In celebration of that legacy, the UFW co-founder spoke to VOXXI about Chavez, the movement and some of the issues Hispanics face today. Huerta currently runs the Dolores Huerta Foundation, a community benefit organization that works at the grassroots level to develop leaders.
Here are a few excerpts of what she shared.
Q: As we approach March 31st and get ready to celebrate the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez, what is your fondest memory of him?
Cesar Chavez, who co-founded the UFW with Dolores Huerta. (AP Photo/Alan Greth, File)
A: When you think about Cesar, there are so many things to think about. One of them of course was his determination and his dedication to the farm worker movement.
Even though people would try to pull him in different directions he refused to be pulled — even when people would say to Cesar, “Oh, you are the leader of the Chicano movement,” he would say, “No, I’m the leader of the farm worker movement.”
He was very focused. And the other thing, he understood how difficult the movement was going to be. When we started and planned the union together, even I never realized how hard it was going to be. But he understood how entrenched the employers were in terms of how the treated their workers, the racism and the power that they had. Not only in terms of owning the lands and being the bosses but also the kind of power they wheeled in the community.
Cesar was such a visionary that he could see the big picture.
I think we are in a similar situation today when we talk about immigration reform. We can see the powers that oppose reform and the things we have to go against to change that.
Q: Since starting the UFW, have the struggles that you and Cesar fought for stayed the same or have they changed? If so, what are the new challenges?
A: I think I can say that we’ve changed, because farm workers have come together to change the attitudes people had toward them. But unfortunately, there are still parts in our country and certain parts of the world where farm workers are still viewed as peons or servants. That view has not changed. We still have that strong racist attitude against people that work in the fields.
Q: Was there a pivotal moment in the early stages of the movement that cemented in your mind UFW’s success?
A: It’s not one moment. It was a bunch of moments so to speak. In order to get the farm workers to stand up for their rights and go on strikes, boycotts and marches, it took a lot of individual moments of organizing and constant reminding that we had the power to make a difference. It wasn’t one big “Aha! moment.”
Q: As a woman in the movement, how did you deal with the machismo?
A: I was very fortunate, because I was on the ground floor of the movement — organizing workers and they would respond to me. I was a negotiator, a political director and boycott director, so the farm workers saw me in a leadership role. I, in turn, had to make them take on responsibility so they too could become leaders.
Among the farm workers themselves, it was never an issue. It was more of an issue when it came to leadership of the men of in the union — with the exception of Cesar who really trusted me and he and I worked very well together.
We weren’t always in locked step or mutual agreement because we would have really heated discussions about the way things should work, about tactics and our philosophy in terms of organizing.
Q: What do you think of immigrant union groups going back on their opposition to guest workers in order to support immigration reform and how that may impact worker wages?
A: I think if we do have guest workers, and I know some groups are supporting that, it’s going to undermine the ability to get legalization for the people that are already here.
We have to think about the big picture and think about how we can change our free trade agreement so that we don’t allow U.S. companies to go in and take over the economies of Mexico, Central America and other countries.
This is why most people leave, because they don’t have opportunities in their own countries. Expanding the guest worker program is making it easier for employers to get slaves because that’s what it is. Guest worker program is a step above slavery. This is not going to solve the ultimate issue of immigration.
We have a very high unemployment rate in the U.S. What we have to do is raise wages and improve the working conditions so that people can afford to work.
We have to raise our minimum wage — which should be approximately anywhere from $22 to $30 an hour to keep up with the cost of living.
Q: Are U.S. Latinos in a better place now than in the 60s and 70s?
Dolores Huerta. (Photo/ Story Corps)
A: There’s no doubt about that. I was speaking with one of my vice presidents on the board of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and he reminded me that when he went to college there were only five Latinos in his campus.
Now you look and see that many campuses have what they call Hispanic Learning Institutions where they have anywhere between 25 to 40 percent Hispanic student body, so we’ve definitely advanced in that respect.
We know that it’s a little more difficult in terms of tuition. We know that K-12 schools are expelling and suspending Latinos at a very high rate and keep them from going to college. So we still have big battles on our hands. We are not there yet, but yes, it has improved.
We have hundreds of Latino organizations now. Anywhere from lawyers, to doctors, nurses, engineers, accountants, so there has been a huge change. But we are quickly becoming the majority in this country so we still have a long way to go in terms of getting better opportunities for educational advancement. We have to figure out a way to get around institutional pushback and make sure that we are going forward not backwards.
Q: Is there a movement now similar to UFW? Will we see a Hispanic leader the likes of Chavez again? There’s a sense that the Hispanic community lacks a vocal and visible leader — what does this mean for the legacy of Chavez and Chicanos and Latinos moving forward?
A: It’s funny you say that because when we were organizing people didn’t think of Cesar as a leader. It wasn’t until he passed away that we were hit with the realization that we had this great genius among us who did great work, not only with farm workers but bringing people together to support the farm worker movement.
We have a lot of great leaders today — Tom Saenz and Cecilia Muñoz to name a few. And you can’t talk about leadership without mentioning all the work the Dreamers have done.
When people say we don’t have leaders they are just not seeing them. The media doesn’t advertise our leaders. They act like we are non-existent. They do this with the women movement as well. They act like the movement is dead. But we have a lot of great leadership. It’s invisible to the corporate world but it’s not invisible to the activist world.