Dolores Huerta Research Paper

The year 1930 was not an easy time to be a woman or a minority, but that never stopped Dolores Huerta. Born on April 10 in Dawson, New Mexico, Dolores is the daughter of Juan and Alicia, who worked as farmers and miners. After moving to Stockton, CA with her mother and siblings, Dolores worked hard to get a degree from the University of the Pacific. Soon after her career as an activist truly began when she “co-founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization, which led voter registration drives and fought for economic improvements for Hispanics” (Michals, 2015). Since she has founded the Agriculture Workers Association, co-founded the National Farmers Workers Association with Casér Chávez, helped organize the 1965 Delano strike of over 5000 grape workers, and served as the Vice President of the United Farm Workers Union.

Coming from a family where her parents were laborers, working and helping on farms, Dolores saw all of the mistreatments, discrimination and problems, firsthand. She took notice of just how unfair practices were and strived to get farmworkers and laborers better wages, safer working

As previously mentioned, she has done a lot in the last six decades an activist, leader and friend to her community. She has organized strikes that set standards for workers and founded organizations that can advocate and fight for the betterment of the lives of laborers. One of her biggest contributions came in the form of a boycott in the early 1970s in which she was instrumental. Dolores, alongside other activists such as Casér Chávez, worked to “ensure peace in the agricultural fields by guaranteeing justice for all agricultural workers and stability in labor relations” (Agricultural Labor Relations Board). Dolores and her fellow activists organized a march in Modesto, CA and pushed Governor Jerry Brown for reform to California labor