Her Background

Dolores Huerta was born on April 10, 1930, in the small mining town of Dawson, New Mexico, and raised in Stockton. She was a composed, dignified labor activist, feminist, mother, and graduate of the College of the Pacific. Being raised by her diligent, migrant father and her self-sufficient, entrepreneur mother, her resilience served a crucial part in the Chicano Movement and its achievements. Both of her parents were active citizens involved in civic organizations— her mother welcomed low-wage workers in her hotel while her father was a union activist, even taking political office in the New Mexico legislature in 1938. Her parents' involvement inspired and influenced her to be just as, if not more, active in reforming the community. 

As social and racial oppressions are being brought to light in the 60s, Huerta was applying pressure on labor issues within the community. She became the co-founder of the first farm workers union in 1962 with César Chávez, making important contributions to the Chicano Movement, and ultimately the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. The Dolores Huerta Foundation states that she: “found her calling as an organizer while serving in the leadership of the Stockton Community Service Organization (CSO). During this time, she founded the Agricultural Workers Association, set up voter registration drives, and pressed local governments for barrio improvements.” Her “organizing skills were essential to the growth of this budding organization.”