Dolores Huerta
Appearances
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, actually, in Arizona, they had passed a law that if farm workers went on strike or anyone said boycott anything, you could go to prison. Imagine. Yeah, and we were working to try to overturn that law. So Cesar had done a 25-day water-only fast. He did not eat anything. just to consume water and Holy Communion for 25 days.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And as I was speaking to some of the professional people in Arizona, asking them to support us to overturn that law, they said to me, in Arizona, you can't do any of that. In California, you can. And my response to them was, si se puede, which means yes, we can in Arizona. When I reported that back to our rally that evening, Everyone jumped to their feet and they said, si se puede, si se puede.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And so that's how it was born. It came from the universe.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
As a result of the international boycott of California table grapes, it resulted in farm workers having bathrooms, toilets in the fields, cold drinking water, rest periods, things that they never had, hand-washing facilities, the right to have a union, the right to have a health plan. under the union, so many things that they, just basic human rights that farm workers did not have.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Of course, with the union, they were able to get unemployment insurance, pensions, etc., health care. But they did not have this, and it was that simple act. And you contributed to that, Julia. By not eating, by not buying those grapes, you contributed to that, and so did the 17 million Americans that didn't buy grapes.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And this is what we have to learn, that if all of us work together, that we know that we can make it happen, that we have that power as people. Do you have any specific negotiating tactics, Dolores? Well, as a negotiator— I was a go-between between the farmworkers and the employers. And you're pretty much a translator. But the main thing I think is you have to give reasons why you need something.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
I'll give you an example. Please. To try to get the cold drinking water for the farmworkers, the growers would say, oh, we put a cup of water out there and it would sit in the hot sun all day long. And the workers had to drink from one cup. All of the crew had to drink out of one cup. Well, that is not sanitary.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
So giving people or the employers, giving them the rationale, the reasons and explain to them why things have to change. Because a lot of that is just racism. It's discrimination. It's making people feel belittled, like they're not worthy.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Exactly. Can you imagine for the women? Do you know what it was like for women to be out there in the field without a toilet? No. They did not have bathrooms and that food is coming directly to your table. Right. It doesn't go through a car wash. Right.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
But right now throughout the whole United States of America, not just in California, in Illinois, in New York and Georgia, farm workers have the right to have a bathroom, a rest period, hand washing facilities and cold drinking water. And health care, I'm hoping? Oh, health care. Well, it depends on what state you live in.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
If you live in California, yes, in California, even undocumented people here have health care.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, actually, when we started the boycott and I went to New York to direct the great boycott, Caesar was back in California. People in New York City had no idea who Caesar Chavez was. We had to introduce Caesar. So I pretty much became the face of the boycott in New York and in Chicago also because Cesar was back in California while we were running the boycotts.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And so I actually became the face. So I have never – I have been over-recognized sometimes, I believe. Oh, really? Oh, good.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yeah, because I have probably about 14 schools named after me throughout the United States of America, parks, streets, centers, etc., So I think I have received a lot of recognition. Now the people that were not recognized besides Cesar and myself were the farm workers. We lost five people that were killed during the strikes. We had people that were put in jail, people that lost their homes.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
All of these people that sacrificed, their names are unknown to anyone now.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yes, I took him to the welfare office and tried to make an application, and they would not let him make an application. And when I went back to the office and I told Fred Ross Sr. that he said, you go back to that office right now and you demand to see a supervisor. Now, he did not say, I'm going to call them ahead of time. I'm going to give you a note to take to them.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
No, he said, you go down there. And I thought, I can do that? And he said, yes, you can do that. All public officials are paid by our tax dollars. And you can make demands of them. So I went back to the welfare office and I got all my courage together. And I said, I want to see a supervisor. And the supervisor came out. I thought, whoa, I could do that. And to me, that was a moment of empowerment.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
But the way that Mr. Ross did that, you know, to make sure that I had the courage. Yes, that's right. Exactly. Yeah, that was a big lesson. That's a big lesson. Yeah, that's a lesson that we have to say to people. You do not have to be a victim. You can be the hero of your own story. And that's what we did when we organized farm workers to say, you can be the heroes of this story.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And we had to go up against big ag, big oil, big banks, you know, President Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and we won.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
I think you explained the process perfectly. In my thinking, if I don't do it, then it's not going to happen. If I don't get out there and help organize farm workers, they're never going to have a union. I quit my teaching job. in Stockton to go to Delano to start the union because I had been given that gift of knowledge of organizing that I can do this.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And if I don't do it, then farm workers are always going to have to live in the same type of miserable conditions that they're working and living in. My mother used to say that. to us growing up. If you can help someone, if you have the ability, then you have an obligation and responsibility to do that. And so that has sort of been my mantra throughout my whole life.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, we knew that Senator Robert Kennedy, he was a champion for poor people. for people in Appalachia, for people in Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and that we had lost someone that would really stand up and speak for us. But at the same time, we knew that we had to continue because if Senator Robert Kennedy would have continued living, this is what he would have wanted us to do.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
So there was no way that we could stop the work. We had to do it in his honor.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Absolutely. And I think that's a good lesson for our nation. Again, if they try to kill our democracy, you know, that we have, we're the ones that have the responsibility to fight for it. And that means each and every person. And democracy, the foundation of democracy is voting.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Absolutely. Yeah, many people thought that I would stop my activism at that point in time. But I knew that actually we espoused the whole idea. nonviolent actions, then the way that we have to respond to violence is by showing that we can continue and that we're not going to let acts of violence stop us. Because if we do that, that means that the opposition would win. And we can't let that happen.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yeah, the response was overwhelming. We had so many flowers. We had flowers for everybody in the hospital. Really? Were you able to share them with other people? Yeah, we were able to share them with everybody. That's nice. And the people in the hospital were so kind, and they were allowing press people to come in. It was pretty overwhelming. But again, it kind of showed the support that we had.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
It gave me more determination to continue.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yeah, my mother set the values for our family. I mean, she was a great devotee of St. Francis of Xavier. And St. Francis of Assisi, and she's the one that taught us that you, as I mentioned, that you have to help people if you possibly can. And actually, my mother had a business. She had a restaurant. But one of her friends, who was Japanese, was interned after World War II.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And my mother's friend, she asked my mother if she would take over her business, which is a hotel. My mother gave up her own business to help her friend and took over her hotel while she was in the internment camps. I hope that her friend was able to return. Yes, she did. They were able to return. Unfortunately, my mother... We had the business, but we didn't have the building.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And the people that owned the building refused to give it back to the Japanese owner. But when it was able to help them start a whole new business, they started a jewelry store.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, I think women, we are more compassionate. We believe in sharing. We believe in cooperation and not competition. We are definitely against wars because we do not want to see our husbands, brothers, our children killed. We don't want to see our children killed. We don't want to see other people's children get killed.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And so this is why we have to do whatever we can to get more feminists elected. And when we say the word feminist, we include men, of course, that share the same values. And, you know, we want to end all of the discrimination that we've mentioned before. We can have a peaceful world. We have, you know, our world has so many resources.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And if we just shared the resources, and then we could think again of sharing and not competition. But I think it is going to take women taking power to make all of this happen.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, I think men always want to—I shouldn't say always. No, not always. I know. Not always. But men, they like to take over. They like to be in charge, you know. And it's kind of difficult for them to defer to women in leadership often. I think I've been fortunate in my life because I did work with Fred Ross Sr., who I believe was the first feminist man that I ever met in my life.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
With Cesar, I was able to challenge him when it came to the issues of having women in power. And he would listen to my arguments because Often I was correct and he wasn't. So, you know, but I think it's so important that we have women, but often also to make women understand that they can use their power, that they have power, that they don't have to defer to others.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
They have to believe in themselves.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, it took two great feminist leaders, Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Smil of the Feminist Majority Foundation. to get me to that position, number one, to understand that just because you're a Catholic doesn't mean that you have to follow what the Catholic Church says. I mean, the Catholic Church at one point in time said that the world was flat and it was not round.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Many people were executed because they didn't go along with that. So it took courage to challenge the religion that you have been grown up in. And then, of course, working with Gloria Steinem, Gloria got me to the position of choice. Working with Ellie Smale, the president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. No, no, it's not even about choice.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
It's about women's reproductive rights to have an abortion. And so, and this is what we do with so many women. And you know, when I speak to Latino audiences and many Latino women who are in the mindset that I was, I tell him about the great president of Mexico, Benito Juarez. And he had a saying that said, In English, respecting other people's rights is peace.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
How many children you want to have or not have, that is your business. Mm-hmm. And the same thing, who you fall in love with, who you marry, if it happens to be somebody of your own sex, that is your business and nobody else's. And this is what we have. And we know that women's reproductive rights are absolutely crucial for their lives. And once women like myself understand that.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
It changes your whole outlook on the world, your whole outlook on your own self and on your own power.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
I think I had seven kids at that point in time.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yeah. I think my age did not permit that.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Right. Exactly. That's why I say that with Gloria and we had many conversations. God bless Gloria Steinem. We had many conversations and she made me understand that it's a choice that women have. It's a choice that women have. And so I went from Gloria's reasoning about choice to Eleanor Smeal saying, no, it's not a choice, it's a right. It's a right.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Oh, that's true. But I had to. As you know, in the relationships, there are other issues, mainly one of guys like to cheat, you know. Yeah, okay. Yeah, and be abusive. So I think that was a part of my ending my relationships, you know. Yeah, from the very beginning, I mean, I always remained an activist.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, it was always a hard choice because, you know, as a woman, you have children. You have to worry again about your income, et cetera. But I think that, no, I think I actually felt pretty liberated when I made those decisions. Really?
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yeah, I believe in healthy divorces.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, they were healthy for myself. I see. Yeah, I believe that women, you know, if the divorce is, if you're in an unhealthy, unhappy marriage, there's no reason why you should stay there. Yes. well, isn't it unusual for Latina women to have divorces? And I said, well, actually, in my family, it's a tradition. You know, my grandparents, my mother's mother and father were both were divorcees.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
My mother was a divorcee and I'm a divorcee.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Actually, they're 20 years apart.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yes, I have a lot of grandchildren. How many? Oh, you know what? I have grandchildren. My grandchildren and my great-grandchildren, and I now have one great-great-grandchild. Whoa, Jack, that's crazy. But you don't know how many? No. I have to sit down and count them.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
To answer your question, my first grandchild, her name is Deneen, Deneen Johns, and my daughter Juanita are the same age. Wow. One of my younger daughters at the same age. That's incredible.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, I had to find somebody to help me with my children. So my thoughts, as you say, in the morning, I would wake up and think, okay, who's going to be babysitting my kids today? Yes. And in the early days, of course, when I was teaching school, you know, I had pretty much a permanent sitter that would come in and take care of my kids. Later on with the
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
With the movement, I couldn't do that because I didn't have the money to do that. So I would have to depend on family and friends to help me with my children. And then in the farm workers movement, we did set up a daycare because we had so many women that were actually there on the picket line. So We set up actually the first daycare for farm workers in the state of California. Really?
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, yes. To date, I think there are many daycare centers. I shouldn't say many, not enough. There are daycare centers for farm workers now that are set up in the state of California for farm workers because they have to go to work pretty early. They have to be out there in the fields at 6 a.m. in the morning. And there are daycare centers for them.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
and not enough, and often daycare centers that they can afford. In the Farm Workers Movement, of course, it was free for all of us because we were not working for wages. We were working for stipends, and so that was really important. And it was not just myself. It was Cesar Chavez's wife, Helen, and all of the other women that were active in the movement.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Oh, yes. Helen was a very strong woman. In fact, I like to say that Caesar never would have accomplished what he did because his wife was such a strong supporter.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, almost everything. Really? Well, she did almost everything for Cesar. He didn't have to do very much, you know, in terms of their own personal life, you know, because she took care of everything.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Absolutely. I mean, he had that support, you know, that was so incredible that he knew that he could do whatever he could and that she would support him all the way.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yes, I do often. And I know that's something that as mothers we have to worry about. And that is a sacrifice, I think, that we make. But we know that it takes a village to raise a child. But it is so important to have women in power. Again, for all of the reasons that we've spoken about, that we as women, then we have to not feel guilty about getting others to help us raise our children.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, I would say that we have to have faith in ourselves, number one. And then we have to have faith in other people. And we have to have faith in our children also. My mother was a working parent. I remember my mother coming home when she was gathering money to start her own business. She would work in the daytime as a waitress, at night in the cannery.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And she would come home and change her uniforms. But she made us understand what she was working for. And we as children understood that. My own children, they grew up in the movement. They understand what we were working for. They knew that we were making huge sacrifices. My kids did not have the nice middle-class life that I had growing up, but they understood that.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And our children can be very resourceful. Kids understand that we can set the values for them and make them understand this is why we're making these sacrifices. And then, of course, you have to get everybody to come in and help us raise our children. And we have to do this. This should not be... Maybe, or should we?
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
No, we have to, because we know that if we're going to save our planet from global warming, if we're going to save our humanity from wars and destruction, we women have to step up and we have to take the power.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Absolutely. Absolutely. Burning Man is a giant art show. This is what it is. People have their what they call the art cars. They have these incredible, incredible vehicles that they make, and they turn them into art pieces. There's beautiful standing art pieces out there that can only be created because some of them are so huge, like the burning man, the man that they burn himself.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
But then they do this, usually some type of a church or some kind of a religious object that they also make, like a castle. And these buildings that they build and these art pieces are so incredible and so unique that you can only see them at Burning Man. So this is like a giant art show.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And then it's like a people's convention because they have all types of workshops, you know, for yoga or cooking or whatever you like. It's like a big playground where you can just play for the 10 days that you're there. If you just want to go for a weekend with Just having fun, staying up all night, dancing all night. It's just wonderful. It's a great experience. Do you have a playa name?
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yes, I think we did. But I think it was for the butterflies, the mariposas. Yes. The butterflies. And that was, of course, a tribute to all of our immigrant community.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, actually, no. I'm one of those. Because of my age, we take a trailer. Oh, okay. And there is a lot of dust. So I'd say for elder people like myself, I would definitely recommend the trailer.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yes, I would say to my 21-year-old self, again, never fear. Don't be afraid to make decisions. And be true to yourself, Dolores. Be true to your heart. Listen to your inner voice and take the challenges that are there before you. And yes, go out and do what you can to help the world.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, I would just say, what I would say to my 50-year-old self is exercise more and take care of your health, because who knows, you might live to be 94 years old. Okay.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
I'm looking forward to a more peaceful world. I think we could make it happen. Maybe not in my lifetime, but again, with Feminist Empowered, we can achieve that. We can achieve John Lennon's world. Imagine a world without borders, you know, a world where people all share resources and where we can fight for peace instead of wars and domination.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
I also feel blessed. Thank you very much. And I so much enjoy seeing you often when I tune into Seinfeld shows.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
And knowing that you bring so much joy and laughter and entertainment to the world. Thank you.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Oh, thank you very much for having me. And I'm not sure that that's true. I believe that you're very wise and probably with everything that you've heard, even wiser than all of us at this point.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Oh, sure, yeah. I'm 94 years old.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
I feel more like 65, maybe.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, we have been through so much. We have learned so much. We have seen so much. So we have a lot of experience that we can draw on when we have to make decisions. But it's always about empowering other people, especially young people. And that's what we as elders have to do.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, I like jazz. And so here in Bakersfield, California, we have a jazz workshop every Tuesday. And we go here free jazz. And we have different musicians that play. And I love dancing. I love music. Do you play an instrument? I did when I was young. I played the violin. I played the piano. But I had no talent.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yes, I used to actually dance. I did tap. I did toe. Yes, I did flamenco when I was a youth.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, I had the good fortune to meet Charlie Parker, who, of course, was a great musician and Dizzy Gillespie also. Yes. I really can't keep up with the younger ones and the names of the younger ones. So I'm kind of old school, but I love young jazz also.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, when I was young, I grew up in Stockton, California, which is close to San Francisco. So we would always go to San Francisco or to Sacramento to see and hear all of the great jazz musicians.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
I actually did. Yeah, with Dizzy Gillespie especially, but that was in New York City during the Great Boycott. When I met Charlie Parker, I was so stunned I couldn't speak. I was speechless. Really? All I could do was stare at him.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Well, he was wonderful. And I met him through, of course, Harry Belafonte is the one that introduced me to Dizzy. And Dizzy actually, then when he was playing, I think, at the Vanguard, he actually took one of our boycott buttons and put it on his dashiki. And told everybody, yes, everybody, you have to boycott grapes to help the farm workers. I love that. Just like your mom.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
Yes, I can, because we had been on strike for two weeks, and I ran out of clean clothes, and I had that one white wrinkled sweater, but it was the only thing that I had that was clean that I could put on. The photographer, Harvey Richards, was trying to take my picture, and I was trying to avoid him. Why? Why? Well, just because I had this wrinkled sweater on. Oh, for goodness sakes.
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Gets Wise with Dolores Huerta
That's hilarious. And I was standing on top of a car holding up that sign because there were people working in the field to bring to their attention that there was a strike going on. And so the picture became very iconic. And actually, I met the directors of Norma Rae at a party in Los Angeles, and they told me that this is where they got the idea for Norma Rae.