Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Dolores Huerta reflects on the role of the Women's Movement in inspiring and empowering her to become an activist. She highlights the societal challenges and stereotypes that women face and the need to change how women are raised and perceived in all cultures. Huerta discusses her collaboration with Cesar Chavez in founding the United Farm Workers union and how her foundation primarily targets immigrants and working people to help them realize their power and fight for their rights.
Dolores Huerta is a labor leader and community organizer. She has worked for civil rights and social justice for over 50 years. Born on April 10, 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico, Huerta was the second of three children of Alicia and Juan Fernandez, a farm worker and miner who became a state legislator in 1938. Her parents divorced when Huerta was three years old, and her mother moved to Stockton, California with her children. Huerta received an associate teaching degree from the University of the Pacific’s Delta College. Huerta briefly taught school in the 1950s, but In 1955 she began her career as an activist when she co-founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO), which led voter registration drives and fought for economic improvements for Hispanics. In 1962, Dolores Huerta, and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union. She served as Vice President and played a critical role in many of the union’s accomplishments for four decades. Dolores has eleven children. She married Ralph Head in college. During her marriage to Ralph Head, she had two daughters. After divorcing Head, she married Ventura Huerta, with whom she bore five children.. She had four children with her life partner, Richard Chavez who passed away in 2011. She was the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, in 1993. In 2002, she received the Puffin/Nation $100,000 prize for Creative Citizenship which she used to establish the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF). She has received numerous awards: among them The Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award from President Clinton in 1998. In 2012 President Obama bestowed Dolores with The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
From the 2013 PBS Documentary “Makers: Women Who Make America”, examines how women have helped shape America over the past 150 years, striving for a full and fair share of political power and economic opportunity.
Subscribe for access to interviews, series, films, and educational materials that address issues of social justice, history, politics, the arts, and culture by spotlighting relatable human stories of purpose and meaning. Learn about our work and how to support our mission here: lifestories.org/. For extended versions of these interviews and more, visit: youtube.com/@lifestoriesinterviewarchive
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Dolores Huerta, American Labor Leader & Civil Rights Activist
Interview Date: May 2, 2007
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:06 A born activist
01:47 Fighting for change
06:33 Cesar Chavez
08:58 Boycotts
15:13 The women’s movement
18:29 Fiery personality
19:09 Fighting the law
22:43 Family life
23:40 Forgotten figure
28:07 Respecting other people’s rights
30:15 Leaving the union
32:50 Women today
38:02 Legacy
©Kunhardt Productions & McGee Media. All rights reserved
#DoloresHuerta #kunhardtfilmfoundation
Dolores Huerta reflects on the role of the Women's Movement in inspiring and empowering her to become an activist. She highlights the societal challenges and stereotypes that women face and the need to change how women are raised and perceived in all cultures. Huerta discusses her collaboration with Cesar Chavez in founding the United Farm Workers union and how her foundation primarily targets immigrants and working people to help them realize their power and fight for their rights.
Dolores Huerta is a labor leader and community organizer. She has worked for civil rights and social justice for over 50 years. Born on April 10, 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico, Huerta was the second of three children of Alicia and Juan Fernandez, a farm worker and miner who became a state legislator in 1938. Her parents divorced when Huerta was three years old, and her mother moved to Stockton, California with her children. Huerta received an associate teaching degree from the University of the Pacific’s Delta College. Huerta briefly taught school in the 1950s, but In 1955 she began her career as an activist when she co-founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO), which led voter registration drives and fought for economic improvements for Hispanics. In 1962, Dolores Huerta, and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union. She served as Vice President and played a critical role in many of the union’s accomplishments for four decades. Dolores has eleven children. She married Ralph Head in college. During her marriage to Ralph Head, she had two daughters. After divorcing Head, she married Ventura Huerta, with whom she bore five children.. She had four children with her life partner, Richard Chavez who passed away in 2011. She was the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, in 1993. In 2002, she received the Puffin/Nation $100,000 prize for Creative Citizenship which she used to establish the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF). She has received numerous awards: among them The Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award from President Clinton in 1998. In 2012 President Obama bestowed Dolores with The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
From the 2013 PBS Documentary “Makers: Women Who Make America”, examines how women have helped shape America over the past 150 years, striving for a full and fair share of political power and economic opportunity.
Subscribe for access to interviews, series, films, and educational materials that address issues of social justice, history, politics, the arts, and culture by spotlighting relatable human stories of purpose and meaning. Learn about our work and how to support our mission here: lifestories.org/. For extended versions of these interviews and more, visit: youtube.com/@lifestoriesinterviewarchive
Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/lifestoriesdotorg
Dolores Huerta, American Labor Leader & Civil Rights Activist
Interview Date: May 2, 2007
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:06 A born activist
01:47 Fighting for change
06:33 Cesar Chavez
08:58 Boycotts
15:13 The women’s movement
18:29 Fiery personality
19:09 Fighting the law
22:43 Family life
23:40 Forgotten figure
28:07 Respecting other people’s rights
30:15 Leaving the union
32:50 Women today
38:02 Legacy
©Kunhardt Productions & McGee Media. All rights reserved
#DoloresHuerta #kunhardtfilmfoundation
