Huerta, Dolores Fernandez (1930-…), is an American labor union leader, lobbyist, and civil rights activist. She is known for her commitment to nonviolence and for her support of the rights of farmworkers, women, minority groups, and the poor. For more than 30 years, she worked closely with the California labor union leader Cesar Chavez to organize farmworkers.
Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernandez on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico. She attended high school in Stockton, California, and went on to attend a local community college. In the 1950’s, she married Ventura Huerta, a public health administrator. They later divorced.
In the mid-1950’s, Dolores Huerta helped establish the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO). She was involved in campaigns to register people to vote and to improve services in the Mexican American community. Through her involvement with the CSO, Huerta met Cesar Chavez. In 1962, Huerta helped Chavez found the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). In 1966, the NFWA merged with another union to create the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. In 1972, the organization changed its name to the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).
As a UFW negotiator, Huerta assisted in the development of labor policies for hiring, grievance (complaint) procedures, and benefit plans. She also organized strikes and consumer boycotts. She was instrumental in the passage of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act (1974), which enabled farmworkers to bargain for better wages and working conditions. Huerta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, in 2012.
See also Chavez, Cesar Estrada ; United Farm Workers of America .
