Sheela Na Gig Episode 20: Francis Delores Huerta

Dolores Huerta is a renowned American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union alongside Cesar Chavez. We’ve certainly all heard of Cesar Chavez, but equally important is Heurta and her undying contributions to laborers and a leader of the Chicano civil rights movement. That's true even when it comes to credit for coining the movement's famous slogan, Sí se puede — Spanish for "Yes, we can" — which has often wrongly been attributed to Chavez. In 1955 Huerta 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. She also founded the Agricultural Workers Association. Through a CSO associate, Huerta met activist César Chávez, with whom she shared an interest in organizing farm workers. In 1962, Huerta and Chávez founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), the predecessor of the United Farm Workers’ Union (UFW), which formed three year later. The recipient of many honors, Huerta received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. As of 2015, she was a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, and the President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. As she approaches nine decades of life, Huerta remains outspoken and indefatigable. Through her Dolores Huerta Foundation, she continues to work with agricultural communities, organizing people to run for office and advocating on issues of health, education and economic development. Find out more about this amazing “Sheela” in this episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions and always welcome any input you may have. Thanx ahead of time for listening!

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