The Dolores Journey

Dolores Huerta did not lead on her own, she sought the help of other like-minded people such as Cesar Chavez. While Chavez was known a

One of the greatest civil rights activists of our time; one who believed the ways of Gandhi and Martin Luther King that “violence can only hurt us and our cause” (Cesar Chavez); a quiet, devoted, small catholic man who had nothing just like those he help fight for; “one of America's most influential labor leaders of the late twentieth century” (Griswold del Castillo); and one “who became the most important Mexican-American leader in the history of the United States” (Ender). Cesar Chavez; an American farm worker, who would soon become the labor leader that led to numerous improvements for union workers; it is recorded that Chavez was born near Yuma, Arizona on March 31, 1927 and died on April 23, 1993 in San Luis, Arizona. (Wikipedia) His

In September 1965, she and Cesar Chavez led a national boycott of abusive grape growers. During this boycott over five-thousand Filipino- American grape pickers protest against the low wages and the long hours of work. The protest is best known as the Delano Grape Strike, and Huerta helped organize a large scale boycott of California grapes. According to the book Dolores Huerta: Labor Leader, by Debra A. Miller, “…Dolores Huerta basically sent representatives to big cities like Chicago and Boston to make even larger the boycott. The work of these representatives was to convince people to buy wine only if it had a union label…” By 1970, grape growers agreed to accept contracts which unionized most of the industry, adding 50,000 UFW members. It became the most ever represented by a union in California agriculture. Even though it was difficult to accomplish, Huerta never back down and accomplished what she

Cesar Chavez fought for other migrant farmers because he had experienced what they were experiencing, and thought he should make a difference when Chavez started leading the UFW, United Farm Workers, is when his movement really started. Lots of things happened during Chavez’s childhood “At age 11, his family lost their farm during the Great Depression and became migrant farm workers”(Cesar Chavez Foundation). That is the main reason for why Chavez noticed the issues that were surfacing with workers, this is what got him into the farms. Cesar taught many unforgettable lessons “Cesar learned and taught others how commitment and sacrifice can set you free from the constraints imposed by depending entirely on money and material things”(Cesar Chavez Foundation). The citation shows how Cesar made a big impact on others even if only teaching them. Cesar did many

According to the documentary, Viva La Causa, farmworkers have gained minimum wages, rights, and a union. During the strike, the Delano growers had connections with the police, therefore, they were armed with strong forces against the picketers. The picketers were cruelly treated and we know this because the article, Fighting for Farmworkers' Rights: Cesar Chavez, The Delano Grape Strike and Boycott stated, “Picketers were sprayed with pesticides, threatened with dogs, verbally assaulted, and physically attacked.” However, Cesar Chavez responded with the nonviolent way of sending his allies in the clergy to walk the picket lines. In June of 1975, The California Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the only law in the country that protects farmworkers’ right to unionize, was passed. The act stated, in Section III: Unfair Labor Practices, “The purpose of establishing an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) procedure is to prevent employers and unions from interfering with, restraining or coercing farm workers in the exercise of their rights as defined by the

Chavez was a Latino farmer. He migrated to Arizona. Cesar Chavez was working in the South in hot fields and vineyards. After his forceful speech, he was known as a religious and spiritual person. From Chavez’s background, he understands the hard workers

Although José had two children with a previous wife, Felipe was the first of six with Virginia. Later on in his life, his siblings, María, Mateo, Jesús, Juan, and Virginia, came about. José worked as a carpenter and blacksmith. With the skills of his job, he built the Alou four-room household. On top of that, he also built many of the other houses in the neighborhood. To suit his family’s desperation for money, he became a fisherman to provide for his family. He did this, so his family could be less dependant on his neighbor’s to pay for their bills. He had always been an avid fisherman because he

When Cesar turned thirty-five on March 31, 1962, he quit his job to help create unions for migrant farm workers. This acted as a major change in his life. In mid-1962, a labor organizer told Cesar that a union was impossible. At that time, there was too much against Cesar like money, law, and people (Hudock 1-3). A year after his birthday the National Farm Workers Association was created. The association was doing well for the first two years. All the members of the association had a credit union, as well as an auto repair co-operative, burial insurance, and a newspaper. Cesar started to get the idea that he wanted to start a strike but he knew they still needed several more years of intense organization and fundraising (Hudock

The most common ways women of different ethnicities were held back were by being barred from certain jobs. Black, and Latina women were not allowed to work in the southern textile industry, or hold a secretarial job like many white women did. Instead they were forced to become maids, and laundresses. (Schaller 594) Another example of the lack of improvement for women in minorities is the percentage of young Italian girls who were withdrawn from school, in order for them to help support their family. Roughly 90% left school at the age of 14 to find work. (Schaller 629) Even though white women were steadily making progress towards equality with their own organizations, african american women did not see such immediate progress. So they decided to create their own similar groups such as the National Association of Colored Women. This group took its stance on it’s own separate set of issues such as lynching, and defending the respect of black women. (Schaller 686) Ida B. Wells, a founding member of the NAACP took the lead on the lynchings, her crusade lead her to flee the south before she eventually settled down in Chicago. She continued to receive death threats had she returned to Memphis but, she continued her campaign and ended up taking it abroad.  There she would form London’s Anti-Lynching Committee, this would causes waves all the way to Memphis, where

By the end of the program, farm labor unions began to form which eventually led to the abolishment of laws stating it was illegal to organize farm labor. This lead the way to the grape strikes in California and the boycotts in stores, lead by Filipino farm workers. After the first strike several various organizations began to form and led similar movements around the country. Through the 1960s to the 1980s, Cesar Chavez was a major inspiration to such movements and organizations. One of the most notable protests was when Chavez and the UFW marched from the Coachella Valley to the Mexican

Through these organizations, Anne had become actively involved in the civil rights movement. She soon realized, though, that there were a lot of preconditions that were needed to achieve significant social change in the black community. Many of the projects Anne worked on, lacked support from the black community. She did not realize how much she would be harassed by the white people because she was fighting the rights of black people. The main preconditions for social change in the 1950s and 1960s, was getting the black community to support the various projects SNCC and the NAACP were working on. The black people they were fighting for did not always like the projects that Anne, and the other young people in SNCC, had been doing. Many black people tended to ignore the efforts of the SNCC because they were afraid of change. It took a lot of work to convince the black community to support the various projects the young people of SNCC were doing. An example of a project that the black community supported extensively, was Freedom Summer. This project would not have been successful if the black community did not support this. The Freedom Summer project proved to be a success because the black community went out and voted. This proved to the federal government, that black people were interested in gaining voting rights. Anne Moody had thought about joining the National Association for the

During strikes, people would hold banners with the black eagle. These banners said stuff like HUELGA (strike) or VIVA LA CAUSA (long live our cause). These people wanted the government to pass laws which permitted farm workers to organize Unions. Cesar wanted to exercise boycotts, pickets, and strikes. He wanted to find recognition for farmers. Cesar even fasted so that the UFW would not use violence. He completed three memorable fasts. One in 1968 he went with only water for 25 days. One time in 1972 for 24 days, and finally one in 1988 for 36

She was involved in a community-organized health clinic, recruited for VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America; a branch of Americorps dedicated to fighting poverty), gave legal aid to residents in her area, provided social work at Bayside Settlement Housing Project, and was the court artist for the trial of Los Siete de la Raza, a group of seven young Latino men who were involved in a police altercation that ended in the death of a police officer. Her work as the court artist exemplifies her application of art to both the political and social spheres of

In 1970 the committee signed an agreement with 26 grape growers to improve working conditions for farm workers. In the 70s' Dolores put together a national lettuce boycott and helped pave the way for the 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which was the first law to recognize farm worker's rights to bargain collectivity. During the 80s' Dolores became Vice President of the UFW and co-founded the radio station for the UFW. She kept speaking for a plethora of causes and advocated for an organized and comprehensive immigration policy, as well as better health conditions for farm

Rose Pesotta the vice president of International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) achieved what many believe to be impossible, to organize a large group of primarily Mexican immigrant workers in the garment industry. In her arrival to Los Angeles in 1933 she quickly perceive the constraints she would have to work under, from language barriers all the way to patriarchal challenges. The Garment Worker Movement really connected with her personally because just like her, the Los Angeles dressmakers were primarily women who were suspicious of the white world and were strongly expected to fail. She too was an immigrant woman working for a union that didn't give her much recognition or help because of her sex. The Garment Worker Movement was a struggle that had built up over the year from enduring all types of violence, because the system structure has been oppressing women for many years it was believe change couldn’t happen, it wasn't until Pesotta’s tactics and strategies to organize that proved everyone who believed that Mexicans couldn't organize wrong. Both Pesotta and the garment workers were fighting a battle against patriarchy.