Dolores Huerta Inspiration

I have seen both her mother’s and her struggles with oppression, subordination and exclusion, their fights for services and funding and their struggles with day-to-day life. I was an involved member of their family and so their struggles touched me deeply, the fight for social justice and acceptance is one that will take a very long time within the Australian community; nonetheless, it is already a personal value of mine. My values are now ones of equality for all, social inclusion, respect, and dignity and worth, and social justice for all.

Dolores Huerta is a Mexican-American woman whose struggles and activist heart led her to help improve the lives of farm workers, immigrants and women. Her father was an inspiration as an activist, while her mother encouraged the development of her education and extra-curricular activities. Although she was a great student, she like many Mexican Americans, experienced racism. Rather than give up on her dreams, her struggles encouraged her to fight an unjust system.

Juanita says, 'I feel my isolation alone in a big house full of people" (Romero, p. 22). The social norms and values surrounding the domestic service was a possible cause of Juanita's loneliness. These problems that Romero mentions are not confined to just Juanita. It applies to all the invisible workers working in the domestic service. At last Romero highlights that the class of domestic workers comprises mostly of women. Romero talks about her own experience working as a domestic worker, how she learned these domestic services through her mom. On weekend Romero would go clean houses along with her mother. Invisible workers are not found among all socioeconomic aspects. They are concentrated among the lower social

In her early years, Shirley Chisholm was separated from her parents and lived in the Barbados. Through this experience, she was able to prove her willpower by being a studious student in school despite the hardship she faced of being away from her parents. This determination benefited her when she came back home to the racist and misogynistic United States at ten years old. Her exceptional grade statuses helped her graduate at the top of her class and earn a scholarship to college so that she could pursue her dream as a school teacher. After she became a teacher, she was content with her position; but after observing lower wages, verbal assaults such as a woman being asked, “Do you type?” when given an interview, and many other discrepancies that blacks and women endured, she became more alert in the brutal society around her and turned to politics.

With the increase in salary many Mexicans would feel the money made would be enough to support their family, and live a more comfortable life. The growth of immigrants sparked around the 1970’s, and continued to grow as decades passed. According to the pewhispanic.org the immigrant population had a seventeen fold increase from the decades before. (seven hundred sixty thousand immigrants were currently in the United States in the nineteen seventies.) Even with the increase in salary Mexican americans were still unsatisfied, and believed they deserved more money, more respect, and less racial segregation. The leader of the United Farm Workers movement Cesar Chavez helped organize boycotts and strikes against the farm owners, and got others to stop buying grapes; this severely hurt the grape growing business. Not only did the increase in salary encourage others to immigrate to the United States, but better working conditions did as well. With more immigrants entering the United States, many Mexicans would find themselves to be illegally in the US. Chavez was strongly against those who were in the US illegally and would refuse to help them. Though these people were not receiving the UFW benefits, it encouraged them to apply for citizenship.

The article “Cesar Chavez Saved My Life,” written by Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez reflects on Mr. Alejandraz’s past, covering some very unfortunate events, but with a purpose of pulling emotion from the reader. While reading some parts of the article, I had to reread it over a few times to comprehend the point that the author was trying to make. The most important thing about knowing his past is that it is significantly different, and much more positive in the future because of one person, Cesar Chavez.

Alongside her father, Dolores at 11 years old, sold pots and pans door to door and watched him as he was constantly slaving for long periods of time in the heat continually harvesting beats, a little at a time to earn a couple dollars, and those dollars which were most likely going to be spent on her. As he faced the dreadful working conditions, he became a labor activist and accomplished getting on the board of the CIO local at the Terrero Camp of the American Medals Company as the secretary-treasurer. Yet Dolores’s father was only on the committee for a brief amount of time due to how blunt and outspoken he was (Novas 160). He wanted to get his point across and explained his point in very rash tones, but even with his rash tones, Dolores Huerta admired her father in attempting to help the union and labor workers, which were the reasons Dolores Huerta pursued activist roles in the community. When teaching for a brief amount of time at an elementary school, she suffered seeing her students come to class with the face of hunger and in need of shoes, she believed that rather than trying to teach peoples hungry kids, a greater impact could result from organizing a union filled with the participation of farm workers, to petition in order to enforce better rights in regarding the way they were being mistreated.(Doak 34). Through experiencing and visually seeing what occurs due to families not having the advantage or

Cesar Chavez was an American civil rights activists. He was born on March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona. Cesar Chavez was the son of Juana Estrada and Librado Chavez. He was named after his grandfather.He lived in a Mexican-American family which had six children. Cesar Chavez lived in the same small house that he was born in. Chavez lost his land during the Great Depression. It was taken away because Chavez’s father made an agreement that was soon broken. His father tried to buy the house but he couldn’t because he wasn’t able to pay the loan. Their house was soon sold to the original owner. Cesar Chavez and his family then had to move to California to become migrant farm workers. The Chavez family had to work really hard. They did not live in the same place for so long. They would pick peas and lettuce in the winter. In the spring, they had to picks cherries and beans. For Summer, they picked corn and grapes. Lastly, for Fall, they would pick cotton. Chavez went to 30 different schools in California because his family kept moving from place to place to find work. In 1942, Chavez dropped out of seventh grade. It would have been his last year but he didn’t want his mother to work in the fields. Chavez soon became full-time migrant farm worker. At the time, farm workers weren’t paid enough and lived horrible conditions. Chavez and his older sister Rita helped farm workers and neighbors when they were sick. They would drive those who couldn’t drive to the hospital to see a

Florence Kelley was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. Throughout her speech to the Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she stresses the importance of changing the working conditions that are in place for children. By using child labor as her baseline, Kelley is able to talk about her main point, which is her suggestion for women’s rights with the help of repetition, strong word choice, and opposition.

The book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States illustrates the fieldwork of the author Seth M. Holmes by explaining the myriad aspects of migrant workers’ lives in the U.S.—from the politics to the social environments to the physical body. By not only studying, but living, the lives of these migrant workers, Holmes brings the reader a view unseen by the vast majority and provides the opportunity for greater understanding through the intense details of his work. The voices of vastly different characters—real people—are captured and expounded on without judgment but with deep consideration for all factors that contribute to each person’s life, opinions, and knowledge. Ultimately, a picture of intersectionality is painted in the colors of migrants, mothers, fathers, children, doctors, soldiers, executives, the poor, the rich, and more.

The goal of a social worker is to help others in tackling whatever problems they are currently facing and pairing them with the appropriate resources needed so that they can lead a productive and healthy life. A social worker lives by a strong value system that is referred to as social justice. According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), “Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities,” (2015, para. 2). Paul Loeb, author of the book Soul of a Citizen, writes moving stories of ordinary people who inspire others to want to be better citizens. This paper will be a reflection on how the book made me feel, the affect it has had on my formation as a social worker, any experiences I have had in social justice advocacy and what vision I have of myself as a social justice social worker.

The historical Chicano women’s strike of Tex-Son in San Antonio, Texas, began in 1959. Tex-Son was a company that specialized in the production of children’s clothing. Tex-Son employed women and immigrants for cheap labor. The working conditions at Tex-Son were not up to par – filthy ventilation systems and unsanitary work areas made labor dangerous. Wages differed between women and men; women were paid by the piece, while men were paid by the hour – this made labor even more risky since the women tried to rush. Tex-Son - aware of the influx of immigrants from Mexico, and taking into consideration the stigma attached to women in the work force - knew that they could employ the women and non-citizens for cheap labor. Tex-Son also had plants throughout the country, and could send work to other cities, where labor was even cheaper. The women were employed by Tex-Son, and were members of union ILGWU. They knew something had to change, and so began the “unladylike” strike. At the start of the strike, the women garment workers established a negative reputation for their selves. Initially protesting violently, the strikers against Tex-Son successfully transformed their image by reverting their struggle’s focus to the theme of motherhood; in addition, they improved their image by befriending the Anglo women, male unionists, and the Catholic Church.

Mrs. Garcia is a middle age Mexican American woman, first generation acculturation into the societal beliefs

Although immigrant women play a big role in America’s society and economy, they have been constantly mistreated and looked down upon throughout history. Not only do they face the burden of the stratifications that their gender entails but they also struggle to adopt the American culture and norms. America was viewed as the land of opportunities and economic prosperity, a perspective that draws in many immigrant women who were willing to leave their families and possessions to come to this foreign country in hopes of a better life. In America, they faced many challenges as they not only had to work long hours but also took care of their families and do housework as well. They struggled to make a standard living out of low wage jobs and assimilating into America’s society. Today, the treatment of immigrant women has improved greatly as they have stood together and fought for their rights. Immigrant women have built communities and held strikes for better pay and treatment. Although America has made great strides in improving treatment of immigrant women, there is still social injustice. Immigrant women have come a long way from the first time they entered America until now, but their stories are often left untold and omitted from American history.

Juarez passionate side was seen in his efforts to advocate for the poor and needy. His intention to bring about a form of social equality was his main objective. Not notably successful in his legal campaign to make the lives of the poor easier, the self-effacing attorney now realized that only structural alteration of the system could affect the changes he envisioned, and his liberalism strengthened. (330)