Press Release

Media Advisory For More Information Contact: Pedro Ramirez English Instructor/CAP Committe Vice-Chair (209) 954-5612 pramirez@deltacollege.edu

For Immediate Release
9/22/2010
                               Delta College Cultural Awareness Programs Presents:
                               “A Morning with Dolores Huerta” Thursday, Sept. 30th

San Joaquin Delta College’s Cultural Awareness Programs (CAP) will present, “A Morning with Dolores Huerta,” on Thursday, Sept. 30th, 9:30- 10:30 a.m. in Atherton Auditorium. This event is free and open to the public.

Dolores Huerta is a nationally celebrated activist, labor leader, and co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) with the late César Chávez. Delta College English instructor and Cultural Awareness Programs Vice-Chair, Pedro Ramirez, says, “This is a great opportunity for students and the public to hear in person one of the most powerful female Chicana/Latina labor leaders in the United States…and it’s free.”

Born Dolores Fernández on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico, Huerta grew up in the farmland of the San Joaquin Valley. In the early 1950s, she completed a teaching degree at Stockton College (later to become San Joaquin Delta Community College). She briefly worked as an elementary school teacher. Huerta saw that her students, many of them children of farm workers, were living in poverty without enough food to eat or other basic necessities. This inspired her to become one of the founders of the Stockton chapter of the Community Services Organization (CSO). The CSO worked to improve social and economic conditions for farm workers and to fight discrimination.

As her cause grew, Huerta created the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) in 1960. Through the AWA, she lobbied politicians on many issues, including allowing migrant workers without U.S. citizenship to receive public assistance and pensions, and helped create Spanish-language voting ballots and driver's tests. In 1962, Dolores Huerta co-founded a workers' union with César Chávez, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW). The two made a great team. Chávez was the dynamic leader and speaker and Huerta was a skilled organizer and tough negotiator. Dolores Huerta was instrumental many UFW successes, including the strikes against California grape growers in the 1960s and 70s.

Huerta, a mother of 11 children, stepped down from her position at the UFW in 1999, but continues her work to improve the lives of the working poor, women and children. Dolores Huerta is currently the President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. She travels the nation speaking to students and organizational forums on issues of social justice and public policy.

Recognitions & Awards:

Dolores Huerta’s  numerous awards include: The Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award from President Clinton in l998; Ms. Magazine’s one of the three most important women of l997; Ladies Home Journal’s 100 most important woman of the 20th Century; Puffin Foundation award for Creative Citizenship Labor Leader Award, 1984; Kern County’s Woman of The Year by California State legislature; The Ohtli award from the Mexican Government; Smithsonian Institution - James Smithson Award, and nine honorary doctorates from universities throughout the United States.

There are four elementary schools in California, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and a high school in Pueblo, Colorado named after Dolores Huerta.


                  United Farm Workers Co-Founder and Labor Activist, Dolores Huerta

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