Sharing Her Light - Dolores Huerta
Updated: Apr 26, 2022
In November of 2019, Dawn Morningstar was honored to be a speaker on the TEDx Oakland stage with icon Dolores Huerta.
Both women talked about self-empowerment from two different perspectives: Dawn talked about the challenges of women leaving prison and Dolores spoke on ending racism.
Here’s an article from The Archive about Dolores Huerta that illustrates how she continues to shine her light:
"Dolores Huerta was born into a family of Mexican immigrants in 1930. Her father worked harvesting beets, and after her parents’ divorce, her mother owned a restaurant which welcomed farm and low-wage workers at affordable prices. It’s no surprise that Dolores was inspired to pursue a life as a civil rights activist.
Though her activism began in high school, it was at the age of 25 that Huerta's efforts really took off. To fight for economic improvements for Latino/Mexican/Chicano migrant farm workers, Huerta co-founded the Stockton Chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO). Five years after that, she co-founded the Agricultural Workers Association to push for barrio improvements. It was two years later that she and Chavez founded the National Farmworkers Association, which would later be called the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. She sat on the board of the UFW—the only woman to do so until 2018.
Along with her founding efforts, she’s also known for lobbying for several important bills to improve the lives of farm workers, including a 1960 bill to permit Spanish-speaking people to take the California driver's examination in Spanish, a 1962 legislation repealing the Bracero Program, a 1963 legislation to extend the federal program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), to California farmworkers, and the 1975 California Agricultural Labor Relations Act."
Enjoy Ms. Huerta's TEDx talks:
How To Overcome Apathy and Find Your Power