Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size.

Immigrant rights and labor icon Dolores Huerta died Wednesday at the age of 96. Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 and then the United Farm Workers of America, working with Cesar Chavez. From 1965 to 1970, the union organized the historic Delano grape strike, which ended in major gains for farmworkers’ labor rights.

In the years that followed, Huerta became heavily involved in the women’s liberation and immigrant rights movements and became a major supporter of the Democratic Party. In March, The New York Times published an investigation into Cesar Chavez’s history of sexual abuse of women and girls in the farmworkers’ movement, prompting Huerta to reveal that she, too, had been raped by Chavez. Huerta said the assaults led to the births of two of her children.

Dolores Huerta appeared on Democracy Now! many times over the years. We remember her legacy with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, who says, “Dolores was not only a labor organizer, a civil rights organizer, a feminist, committed, always optimistic about the possibilities of this country, but she loved life, and I want people to remember that.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

Union-Busters Are Using ICE to Intimidate California Wine Industry Workers

The legendary labor organizer, feminist and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta has died at the age of 96. She was co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 and then the United Farm Workers of America. She worked with Cesar Chavez at both groups. The United Farm Workers grew out of a merger between the National Farm Workers Association and the Filipino-led Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee.

Dolores Huerta coined the phrase ”¡Sí se puede!,” “Yes, we can!” It became a rallying cry for farmworkers, a lasting slogan for social justice movements.

Dolores Huerta appeared on Democracy Now! many times. We’ll hear her in her own words later in the broadcast, but first let’s turn to the trailer of the 2017 documentary Dolores, which featured interviews with Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.

SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: Dolores is an icon. CURTIS ACOSTA: She’s a civil rights hero. CESAR CHAVEZ: She’s the first general that I followed into war. HILLARY CLINTON: She’s not afraid to speak truth to power. ROBERT F. KENNEDY: Dolores Huerta, who is an old friend of mine. ANGELA DAVIS: The FBI knew how dangerous Dolores was. Dolores came up with the slogan ¡Sí se puede! SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Yes, we can. INTERVIEWER: You were a young girl growing up in America in the ’40s. You must have had a dream. DOLORES HUERTA: After I had seen the miserable conditions of farmworkers, Cesar Chavez said, “We have to organize a union.” You had this ambiance all around you that you could really change the world. REPORTER: It’s, beyond question, the largest gathering on behalf of farmworkers in California history. PROTESTER: I wish they all go back to where they came from. We have no labor trouble troubles. UNIDENTIFIED: She wasn’t asking for permission. She just did what needed to be done. ELISEO MEDINA: She has such a firm belief in what she’s doing — DOLORES HUERTA: We’re never giving up. ELISEO MEDINA: — that she infects you with it. Dolores Huerta. DOLORES HUERTA: Ninety thousand people were poisoned in the fields of the United States of America. RANDY SHAW: The farmworkers founded the whole idea of environmental justice. UNIDENTIFIED: Men were threatened by her power. UNIDENTIFIED: She’s a very volatile individual. UNIDENTIFIED: She’s an insult. UNIDENTIFIED: People wanted to see her in a more traditional role. DOLORES HUERTA: I left a couple of my children behind. MARIA ELENA CHAVEZ: That’s part of the sacrifice that we made and that we had to make. DOLORES HUERTA: And it still pains me when I think about it. CURTIS ACOSTA: People in power have no idea of the true heroes of this country. GLORIA STEINEM: I would not have been able to see what’s hidden in the fields of our country without Dolores. CURTIS ACOSTA: We’re knee deep in sexism when it comes to why she isn’t studied and why people don’t know her. UNIDENTIFIED: Latina girls need to see statues of you. JUANITA CHÁVEZ: We were trying to set the record straight. I mean, women cannot be written out of history. DOLORES HUERTA: Down with violence! ¡Abajo! Down with racism! ¡Abajo! Down with sexism! ¡Abajo!

SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: Dolores is an icon.

CURTIS ACOSTA: She’s a civil rights hero.

CESAR CHAVEZ: She’s the first general that I followed into war.

HILLARY CLINTON: She’s not afraid to speak truth to power.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY: Dolores Huerta, who is an old friend of mine.

ANGELA DAVIS: The FBI knew how dangerous Dolores was. Dolores came up with the slogan ¡Sí se puede!

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Yes, we can.

INTERVIEWER: You were a young girl growing up in America in the ’40s. You must have had a dream.

DOLORES HUERTA: After I had seen the miserable conditions of farmworkers, Cesar Chavez said, “We have to organize a union.” You had this ambiance all around you that you could really change the world.

REPORTER: It’s, beyond question, the largest gathering on behalf of farmworkers in California history.

PROTESTER: I wish they all go back to where they came from. We have no labor trouble troubles.

UNIDENTIFIED: She wasn’t asking for permission. She just did what needed to be done.

ELISEO MEDINA: She has such a firm belief in what she’s doing —

DOLORES HUERTA: We’re never giving up.

ELISEO MEDINA: — that she infects you with it.

DOLORES HUERTA: Ninety thousand people were poisoned in the fields of the United States of America.

RANDY SHAW: The farmworkers founded the whole idea of environmental justice.

UNIDENTIFIED: Men were threatened by her power.

UNIDENTIFIED: She’s a very volatile individual.

UNIDENTIFIED: She’s an insult.

UNIDENTIFIED: People wanted to see her in a more traditional role.

DOLORES HUERTA: I left a couple of my children behind.

MARIA ELENA CHAVEZ: That’s part of the sacrifice that we made and that we had to make.

DOLORES HUERTA: And it still pains me when I think about it.

CURTIS ACOSTA: People in power have no idea of the true heroes of this country.

GLORIA STEINEM: I would not have been able to see what’s hidden in the fields of our country without Dolores.

CURTIS ACOSTA: We’re knee deep in sexism when it comes to why she isn’t studied and why people don’t know her.

UNIDENTIFIED: Latina girls need to see statues of you.

JUANITA CHÁVEZ: We were trying to set the record straight. I mean, women cannot be written out of history.

DOLORES HUERTA: Down with violence! ¡Abajo! Down with racism! ¡Abajo! Down with sexism! ¡Abajo!

AMY GOODMAN: The trailer to the documentary Dolores, directed by Peter Bratt.

We’re joined now by Maria Hinojosa, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and founder of Futuro Media, host of Latino USA.

Maria, you have covered Dolores Huerta for decades. Just last year, you interviewed her for — after a New York Times investigation exposed the sexual abuse and rape allegations against the UFW co-founder Cesar Chavez. Dolores Huerta herself publicly disclosed that Chavez had raped her decades earlier. You talked to her about that, and we’ll talk about that later. But first, let’s talk about Dolores Huerta’s legacy. Who was Dolores Huerta, born in 1930, died at the age of 96?

MARIA HINOJOSA: She was a fighter. She also — Amy, one of the things that I love talking about is Dolores was not only a labor organizer, a civil rights organizer, a feminist, committed, always optimistic about the possibilities of this country, but she loved life. And I want people to remember that. Like, when I would be with Dolores, and it would be kind of wrapping up a night of being out doing an event, and I’d be like, “Well, I’m going to the hotel. I’m going to sleep,” she’s like, “Really? We’re going to go out. We’re going to go out and go dancing. We’re going to listen to music.” And I’m like, “What?” And she’s like — this was Dolores. And I think it’s important to remember that as much as she fought for people, the most vulnerable, she also fought to love life and to love her kids, her kids, her grandkids, her great-grandkids, great-great-grandkids, still here.

So, I don’t know. She was always so optimistic. Like, when I would ask her, “Things are looking bad,” she’s always like, “There’s always an opportunity to organize and make things better.” And I’m like, “OK, Dolores, let’s keep it like that: positive.”

AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s hear Dolores Huerta in her own words. In 2017, she came into our studio to talk about her life and the documentary that had just been named about her, Dolores. She talked about her childhood.

DOLORES HUERTA: Well, I was born in the state of New Mexico and moved to Stockton when I was 6 years old. My parents divorced, and my mother took us to Stockton. And that’s where I was raised, and that’s where I started my initial organizing, in that area. AMY GOODMAN: And how did you, as a teenager, decide that organizing was going to be the path of your life, and specifically working with farmworkers? DOLORES HUERTA: Well, that was kind of accidental, as where I grew up, Stockton, California, is an agricultural community. And as a youngster, I was a Girl Scout for 10 years of my life, and I was in a lot of different social clubs. But when I met Mr. Ross and he showed us what we could actually do by coming together and organizing and taking direct nonviolent action, then I was really — I thought, “Oh my goodness! This is what I want to do with my life.” And so, I became a schoolteacher, then I left teaching to go to Delano to start the union there. AMY GOODMAN: And farmworkers themselves, the grape boycott that you helped to lead, the worker strikes, talk about how you organized them. What was the strategy? And then talk about your response to the impact that it had. DOLORES HUERTA: Well, the thing is that when people think about the strike and the — it’s very dramatic, colorful. But what they don’t see is like the three years before........

© Truthout