Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the United Farmworkers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers’ contract that was created after the strike.
Dolores Huerta Biography
On April 10, 1930, Dolores Huerta was born in Dawson, New Mexico, a mining town. She is Juan Fernández and Alicia Chávez’s only child and second child overall. A family of Mexican immigrants settled in Dawson, where Juan Fernández was employed as a coal miner. Subsequently, he became a migrant worker, picking beets in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. Huerta grew up listening to her father relate tales of union organizing. She hardly ever saw her father after her parents had divorced when she was three years old. In 1938, he continued to reside in New Mexico and participated in the legislature.
In the farmworker town of Stockton, California, in central California, Chávez reared Huerta and her two brothers. Huerta’s mother was well-known for her generosity and compassion toward people. She was also involved in the church, a number of civic groups, and local issues. She supported Huerta’s upbringing in Stockton, where cultural variety was an inherent aspect of her life. Businesswoman Alicia Chávez welcomed low-wage workers and farmworker families at reasonable costs and occasionally provided them with free housing. She also operated a restaurant and a 70-room hotel. Huerta’s mother encouraged her to become a farmworker advocate later in life. Huerta said in an interview that her mother is the most important person in her life. She was both a very nice and intellectual woman. Huerta was inspired to consider civil rights by this. Dolores’s own nonviolent, very spiritual posture was rooted in her mother’s giving actions during her early years. “When we talk about spiritual forces, I think that Hispanic women are more familiar with spiritual forces,” she stated in the same interview. We are aware of the definition of fasting and its cultural significance. We are aware of the nature of relationships and the meaning of sacrifice.
Huerta started her community participation while attending Stockton High School. Up until the age of 18, Huerta participated actively in a number of school activities and was a majorette and devoted Girl Scout.
Dolores Huerta Family
In 1948, Huerta graduated from college and wed Ralph Head. Celeste and Lori were their two daughters from their marriage.
She married Ventura Huerta after divorcing Head, and the two had five children together. Emilio Jesus Huerta, their son, entered politics and declared to run for Congress. Due in part to the length of time she spent away from her family for campaigning and organizing, her second marriage also ended in divorce.
Afterwards, Huerta fell in love with César Chávez’s brother, Richard Chavez. Despite never being married, Huerta and Chávez had four children together. On July 27, 2011, Richard Chávez passed away.