Dolores Huerta, a Hispanic civil rights activist, spoke at a sit-down discussion at Fresno City College’s (FCC) auditorium on May 1. She was interviewed by Francisco Bucio and Lori Natal, counselors at FCC.
Huerta got her start in 1955 after leaving a career of teaching when she founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization, which helped the Hispanic community register to vote and fight for progress in the community. She also lobbied for change in Sacramento for equal rights.
She helped create the Agriculture Workers Organizing Association (AWOA) which was led by figures like Cesar Chavez and Huerta. It played a crucial role in fighting for the rights and improved working conditions of farmworkers in California.
Huerta spoke on multiple different issues that communities need to “fight for” whether that be national legislation or corporations hurting smaller communities; the overall theme being advocacy.
“We all have to become activists in whatever way we possibly can,” Huerta said.
Dolores emphasized the need to address systemic issues like racism, economic inequality and the lack of universal social services.
She also mentioned the significance of the need for things like a potential equal rights amendment to combat these social injustices and how far behind the U.S. is compared to other developed countries.
Something Huerta touched on was the economic disparities of marginalized groups and how the federal government spends on things that she calls “not right.”
“One person has more money than the rest of the population, one person has more money than 99% of the people in the United States of America,” Huerta said. “Isn’t that wrong?”
During the conversation, Huerta localized issues to the Central Valley. She talked about how big industries are affecting the resources of smaller, diminished communities; talking about how there is more money being given to incarcerate people rather than educating individuals.
“Right now the prison budget is higher than our…high school budget in California,” Huerta said. “Since 1965, the valley has seen 20 prisons be built and only one university.”
Throughout the discussion, Huerta reflected on the early days of organizing farm workers in California and the formation of the AWOA committee, which later merged into the United Farm Workers Union.
She stressed that organizing in solidarity with Black, Brown and Indigenous communities was not just a strategy — it was a moral imperative, like when the hispanic farm workers stood with Filipino farm workers during picketing lines.
Despite the dangers she faced like threats, harassment and physical violence, Huerta remained firm in her commitment to nonviolence.
“Even when our lives were in danger, we chose not to retaliate with violence,” Huerta said. “We had to stay united and focused on justice.”
Today, Huerta said, the political climate remains uncertain, but she sees parallels between the current era and other times of national hardship, such as the Great Depression and the Vietnam War. In both of those periods, significant reform followed.
She said we should take what happened in key points in our history and apply them today.
“We have to prepare for the future by learning from the past,” Huerta said. “We must organize, vote and ensure we elect leaders.”
The discussion, however, wasn’t all critical. Huerta made the audience laugh and cheer while telling them about one of her favorite hobbies: dancing. Huerta talked about her love of dancing to Latinx musicians, even after turning 95.
FCC surprised Huerta with a live performance from Grammy award-winning artist, Melinda Salcido.
One of the songs Salcido performed was “Brown Eyed Children of the Sun,” a hispanic labor song inspired by a poem. The song had lyrics such as “Your back is bent from picking like your dying time has come” and “You marched on Easter Sunday to the Capital,” echoing the work Huerta did when it came to labor and organizing the march to Sacramento with Chavez.
