Dolores Huerta left us this past week. She imparted a legacy of great sacrifice and achievement especially in the recognition of the value of those that toil in the fields to harvest the food we put on our dinner table.
I had fleeting contacts with Huerta here and there and did not have an opportunity to spend quality time with her until some years ago that I had the pleasure of driving Dolores from Mobile, Alabama to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia. The 5 hours we spent in the car were some of the most memorable moments of my life.
On my trip home from there, I thought about her legacy even then, and wondered about what was the special connection between that great and illusive figure and my own life. Then it dawned on me that, although Dolores is mostly associated with California, she in effect represented me and my farm worker family as we traveled and worked the fields of Texas and the Midwest.
It also reminded me that the working and living conditions were so terrible that the experience drove me into a sense of denial and a deep desire to forget that period of my story. Even today, although I love the beauty of farms and the pastures of a ranches, I have a hard time doing things like cutting the lawn in my home because it brings back memories that I would like to forget or keep out of reach.
Many of us remember the motto of the Obama campaigns for President “Yes we can.” It made me think of Huerta as she had a lot to do with coining the original phrase in Spanish “Si se puede” that the Obama campaign translated.
“Si se puede” represents the highest expression of collective thought that moves what may look impossible. That is one of the lessons Dolores Huerta ingrained in all activists with whom she came into contact.
It is true that the union movement that took off during the Franklin Roosevelt administration in the 1930s eventually opened the door for blue collar industry workers to enter the middle class. The movement reach a sort of zenith in the late 1960s with antics of Jimmy Hoffa and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that made a lot of noise with strikes, work stoppages, trucker roadblocks and was very successful in salary and benefit negotiations with the transportation industry.
Taking that strategy to the California farms and grape vineyards was indeed a challenge of major proportions and something that had not been done successfully before. Strikes and boycotts done with farm workers that live from day to day in an industry that does not lend itself to that type of action was a huge undertaking.
Chavez, Huerta and their group used their Community Service Organization training, an alliance with Filipino organizations among others and a farm worker movement that reached across the country to take on the growers and get results. Their success is an epic story with mythological implications as it employed every aspect of human endeavor such as the sciences, the arts, music, language and the podium to bring victory to the farm worker community.
Dolores Huerta’s legacy as a woman, a professional and most of all, a great leader honors her as an icon deeply ingrained in the history of Latinos and the history of America. Her contributions has taken the country another step forward in realizing its conception.
Rest In Peace, Dolores Clara Huerta. Y Si Se Puede.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
