Inspiring Women: Delores Huerta
By: Alison Zapata Gonzalez
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Digital Devil will be featuring profiles on incredible women throughout history that have inspired the masses with their incredible journeys. The first woman to be featured is Dolores Huerta.
Dolores Huerta, was a co-founder of the United Farm Association, a leader of the Chicano civil right movements, not to mention her place as one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century. Huerta taught at a school in the 1950s, but because she saw so many farm children coming to school on empty stomachs, she knew she wanted to help more, be more. She co-founded the Community Service Organization (CSO), founded the Agricultural Workers Association, and co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).
In 1965, Dolores helped organize the Delano Strike that included 5,000 grape workers. She then organized many different farm workers, negotiated contracts, and advocated for safer working conditions, which included the elimination of harmful pesticides. Huerta also fought hard for unemployment issues and providing healthcare benefits to agricultural workers during the negotiations. Following the Delano strike, she would go on to organize more boycotts, one of which led to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. For these accomplishments and many others, Huerta was given the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. And in California, April 10th will forever be known as Dolores Huerta Day.
During Women’s History Month, we should celebrate all women for the accomplishments they have achieved. But especially the ones who have led the way of growth, through perseverance, willingness, and bravery. We should thank mothers who have given us life and filled us with desire to grow and achieve greatness. We should pay tribute to women that stand for rights and growth within our communities.
For so long, women were considered lesser, but without the strength and solitude of women, the basic human rights we enjoy today would be non-existent.
