Farm labor activist, icon Dolores Huerta empowers Stockton to carry on her work

A civil rights activist, a labor leader, a mother, a feminist and an icon.

Dolores Huerta is most notably known as a co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW). She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 by President Barack Obama and was inducted into the US Department of Labor Hall of Honor. She has made a name for herself across the nation, but her roots began in Stockton.

Huerta is now 92 years old, with more sunrises behind her than ahead. And despite the strides made in labor relations notes that there is still much work to be done. But there are people ready to take on that work.

“Well, there's a lot of people that are going to be taking on my job," she said. "I have my daughter Camila, who is the director of my foundation, my youngest daughter, but then there are so many young people like people here at the university (University of the Pacific), that they're going to be taking it on,” Huerta told The Record on Sept. 29. “And that's what we want, you know, to empower them and to make them understand that they are fighting not only for their own future but for the future of our democracy in the United States of America.”

Seven years ago during a stop in Stockton, Huerta, then 85, talked about the importance of preparing the next generation for community organizing.

“We have so much work to do, and especially now, as I get older, I think I don't have many years left to do as much as I can, to try to improve conditions for people,” Huerta said in 2015. “We’re trying to organize people so they can learn how to improve their lives and their environment.”

Huerta and other UFW members have faced many challenges throughout the years trying to make a change. One of them has been in policing.

"I was beaten up by police (she was nearly killed in 1988 by club-wielding San Francisco police at a protest against the policies of President George H. W. Bush),” she said in 2015. “I used to think when I was young and all the racism was going on, when I got to be an adult it would be gone. I’m a grandmother, a great grandmother, and my own grandchildren are harassed by the police.

“It goes on and on, but you just have to keep fighting it.”

Huerta mentioned there were five UFW members killed in the early years of the United Farm Workers.

Many people don’t know their names: Nan Freeman, Nagi Daifallah, Juan De La Cruz, Rufino Contreras, and Rene Lopez.

Just three years ago, Huerta was arrested in Fresno for protesting at a Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting over pay for workers that care for the elderly and disabled. Huerta was among five other protestors arrested for allegedly failing and order to disperse.

She continues inspiring the next generation of community organizers through the Dolores Huerta Foundation which inspires and organizes community members and empowers them to advocate for social justice.

But her famous "Sí, se puede," slogan that she created decades ago is not left behind.

“It's an empowerment slogan,” Huerta said to The Record during her visit at University of the Pacific on Sept. 29.

Many farm workers and activists to this day use her slogan at rallies and protests.

“Not only does it mean 'yes, we can,' it means 'yes, I can' ... so when people feel that, then I think they feel empowered. They know that they have to engage, they know that they have to do something. They just can't wait and be bystanders. They've got to be in the mix. They got to be on the street.” Huerta said.

In August, Huerta supported farmworkers at a Stockton rally as part of a 24-day, 335-mile march from Delano to Sacramento for Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature on Assembly Bill 2183, or the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act.

“We got the news yesterday that the governor finally signed the bill for the farm workers,” Huerta said during her speech. “And of course, this is what it's all about. It's about workers power. It’s about people power.”

On Sept. 29, Huerta visited a group of first-generation students in the Community Involvement Program (CIP) and Success TRiO before her university talk at “An Evening with Dolores Huerta” at the University of the Pacific.

She greeted each and every student, took photos, signed autographs, and chatted with them. Later at the DeRosa University Center ballroom, more than 250 students and faculty stood up and applauded Huerta as she took on the stage for Pacific’s Latino Heritage month signature event.

One student shared with Huerta and the crowd at “An Evening with Dolores Huerta” how her sixth-grade teacher told her “nobody ever amounted to anything if they came out of Stockton, California."

“In the same sixth grade, my parents showed me this documentary about you, and I wanted to thank you because you are my hero, and you let me know that I can amount to something,” the student said.

Related: In familiar refrain, United Farm Workers grapples with how to grow

Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at recordnet.com/subscribenow. 

This article originally appeared on The Record: Farm labor activist Dolores Huerta empowers next generation