THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta

“They need our voice, our insight…our intelligence to make the right decisions. We have to keep working until we can make that happen.”

Union Leader and activist for the rights of farm workers and women. Founded National Farm Workers Association with César E. Chávez. Instrumental in the enactment of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. Directed the first National Boycott of California Table Grapes.

Interviewed by Judy Waxman, February 2022

Photo 1. Dolores Huerta. Photo 2. United Farm Workers’ Dolores Huerta organizing farm workers in Coachella, California, in 1969 [Walter P. Reuther Library Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs Wayne State University]. Photo 3. President Barack Obama awards Dolores Huerta the Presidential Medal of Freedom, May 29, 2012 [AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster]. Photo 4. Dolores Huerta, Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem at the United Farm Workers Rally, New York City, May 1975 [Photo by Bettye Lane].