Dolores Huerta
speaker
102 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 20 Mar
Dolores Huerta’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 2.
Appearances
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.
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.
Yes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And so that's how it was born. It came from the universe.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you live in California, yes, in California, even undocumented people here have health care.
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.
And so I actually became the face. So I have never – I have been over-recognized sometimes, I believe. Oh, really? Oh, good.
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.
All of these people that sacrificed, their names are unknown to anyone now.
Showing 21–40 of 102 · page 2 of 6
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