49 Facts About Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta was the first Latina inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, in 1993.

Dolores Huerta is the originator of the phrase "Si, se puede".

Dolores Huerta was born on April 10,1930, in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico.

Dolores Huerta is the second child and only daughter of Juan Fernandez and Alicia Chavez.

When Dolores Huerta was young, she would hear her father tell stories about union organizing.

Dolores Huerta stayed in New Mexico and served in the state legislature in 1938.

Dolores Huerta's mother was known for her kindness and compassion towards others and was active in community affairs, numerous civic organizations, and the church.

Dolores Huerta encouraged the cultural diversity that was a natural part of Huerta's upbringing in Stockton.

Dolores Huerta was inspired by her mother to advocate for farmworkers later on in her life.

Dolores Huerta's community activism began when she was a student at Stockton High School.

Dolores Huerta was active in numerous school clubs and was a majorette and dedicated member of the Girl Scouts until the age of 18.

Dolores Huerta says a school teacher accusing her of stealing another student's work and, as a result, giving her an unfair grade, an act she considers to be rooted in racial bias.

Dolores Huerta attended college at the University of the Pacific's Stockton College, where she earned a provisional teaching credential.

Dolores Huerta knew she was capable of delivering the organization's message in Spanish and English and promoted the agenda from door to door field organizing.

In 1960, Dolores Huerta co-founded the Agricultural Workers Association, which set up voter registration drives and pressed local governments for barrio improvements.

Dolores Huerta was the only woman to ever sit on the board of the UFW, until 2018.

In 1962, after the CSO turned down Chavez's request, as their president, to organize farmworkers, Chavez and Dolores Huerta resigned from the CSO.

Dolores Huerta went to work for the National Farm Workers Association, which would later merge with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee.

At the age of only 25, Dolores Huerta was a lobbyist in Sacramento for the Stockton Community Service Organization and trained people to do grassroots organizing.

Dolores Huerta cited that they were being paid little to nothing, had no rights, slept on the floors, had wooden boxes as furniture and unclean water, lacked access to bathrooms, and worked from sunrise to sundown without breaks.

Dolores Huerta led the organization of boycotts advocating for consumer rights.

Dolores Huerta remains active in progressive causes, and serves on the boards of People for the American Way, Consumer Federation of California, and Feminist Majority Foundation.

On June 5,1968, Huerta stood beside Robert F Kennedy on the speaker's platform at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as he delivered a victory statement to his political supporters shortly after winning the California Democratic presidential primary election.

Later, Dolores Huerta won a large judgment against the SFPD and the City of San Francisco for the attack, the proceeds of which she used for the benefit of farm workers.

On November 17,2015, Dolores Huerta was bestowed the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest decoration a foreign national can receive from the Mexican government.

Dolores Huerta was lauded for her years of service helping the Mexican community in the United States fighting for equal pay, dignity in the workplace, and fair employment practices in the farms of Northern California like Stockton, Salinas, and Delano.

Dolores Huerta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama on May 29,2012.

Dolores Huerta has served on the Board of Directors of Equality California.

Dolores Huerta was named one of the three most important women of the year in 1997 by Ms.

Dolores Huerta was an inaugural recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights from President Bill Clinton in 1998.

Dolores Huerta was conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from California State University, Northridge on May 29,2002.

Dolores Huerta received an honorary degree from Princeton University in recognition of her numerous achievements May 2006.

On May 18,2007, she announced her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president, and at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Dolores Huerta formally placed Clinton's name into nomination.

Also in 2008, Dolores Huerta received the "Maggie" Award, highest honor of the Planned Parenthood Federation, in tribute to their founder, Margaret Sanger.

Dolores Huerta was recognized in 2008 by United Neighborhood Centers of America with its highest individual honor, the Jane Addams Distinguished Leadership Award at its National Policy Summit in Washington, DC Dolores Huerta was awarded the UCLA Medal, UCLA's highest honor, during the UCLA College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony on June 12,2009.

In October 2010, Dolores Huerta was awarded an honorary degree by Mills College, who lauded her as "a lifetime champion of social justice whose courageous leadership garnered unprecedented national support from farmworkers, women, and underserved communities in a landmark quest for human and civil rights".

Dolores Huerta was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by Mount Holyoke College, where she delivered the commencement address, on May 21,2017.

Dolores Huerta was honored by California State University, Los Angeles in October 2017 with its highest honor, the Presidential Medallion.

Dolores Huerta was a speaker at the first and tenth Cesar Chavez Convocation.

In 2013, Dolores Huerta received the annual Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, given by Jefferson Awards.

Dolores Huerta gave the keynote address at the Berkeley Law Class of 2018 graduation ceremony.

Dolores Huerta once served as Honorary Chair in the Democratic Socialists of America.

Dolores Huerta championed women's rights in feminist campaigns during her time off from union work.

Dolores Huerta was an honorary co-chair of the Women's March on Washington on January 21,2017, the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president.

Dolores Huerta joined in criticizing workers for their perceived promiscuity; while she did not personally support the use of birth control, she kept this opinion to herself out of respect for other women's choices.

Dolores Huerta spent three decades advocating for safer working conditions with the UFW.

Dolores Huerta married Ralph Head in college after her graduation in 1948.

Later, Dolores Huerta had a romantic relationship with Richard Chavez, the brother of Cesar Chavez.

The Dolores Huerta Papers are a part of the United Farm Workers Collections at the Walter P Reuther Library.