If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?
-Dolorea Huerta
Professional farmworkers who know how to do a number of different jobs, whether it be pruning or picking or crafting, they see themselves as professionals, and they take a lot of pride in that work. They don’t see themselves as doing work that is demeaning.
-Dolorea Huerta
My mother never made me do anything for my brothers, like serve them. I think that’s an important lesson, especially for the Latino culture, because the women are expected to be the ones that serve and cook and whatever. Not in our family. Everybody was equal.
-Dolorea Huerta
I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.
-Dolorea Huerta
My mother was a dominant force in our family. And I always saw her as the leader. And that was great for me as a young woman, because I never saw that women had to be dominated by men.
-Dolorea Huerta
My mother was a very wonderful woman. When she and my dad divorced, she moved to California and worked two jobs in the cannery at night and as a waitress during the day. But she saved enough money to establish a restaurant.
-Dolorea Huerta
My dad was very intelligent, had a very strong personality. I was amazed with my father.
-Dolorea Huerta
When you have a conflict, that means that there are truths that have to be addressed on each side of the conflict. And when you have a conflict, then it’s an educational process to try to resolve the conflict. And to resolve that, you have to get people on both sides of the conflict involved so that they can dialogue.
-Dolorea Huerta
I remember as a little girl going down to the beet fields in the Dakotas and in Nebraska and Wyoming as migrant workers when I was very, very small, like, I was, like, 5 years old, I believe. And I remember going out there, you know, traveling to these states and living in these little tarpaper shacks that they had in Wyoming.
-Dolorea Huerta
We’re here celebrating a new civil rights movement, and it’s headed up by Latinos.
-Dolorea Huerta
Giving kids clothes and food is one thing but it’s much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important, and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people.
-Dolorea Huerta
went back to our old culture, the Latino culture.
-Dolorea Huerta
We are inspired by what is happening here. The revolution here is electoral. It has inspired us to take these lessons to our country and to inspire our people too.
-Dolorea Huerta
Our society is connecting workers with the products people consume and recognizing workers for their contributions. It is important to do that, and to have organized labor – a middle class – to preserve our democracy.
-Dolorea Huerta
Employers able to work together with workers and sharing gains and profits will lead to a much better world, getting away from income inequality.
-Dolorea Huerta
We need to keep ringing the bell, wake people up to get our democracy together. Farm workers are like a symbol, and it is good that people are paying attention.
-Dolorea Huerta
In fact, the corporations are driving out the competition and it is not getting better, especially when they are not paying income taxes. Thank goodness for the social media out there, because we sure can’t count on the corporate media to get the word out.
-Dolorea Huerta
As we’ve focused more on our food and where it comes from, people now have greater awareness of what’s being put onto our food, pesticides, labeling issues, and consumer health.
-Dolorea Huerta
I’m glad that the fact that people are still getting poisoned by pesticide drift is gaining attention.
-Dolorea Huerta
I am happy to see that, increasingly, people care about farm workers. There is tremendous interest in where and how our food is grown.
-Dolorea Huerta
Of course, we have leaders in the African American community as well that we’ve all worked with. One of the great rewards of being an activist is that you get to meet all these wonderful people. And there are many unsung heroes. There are so many out there that are good people that are working hard.
-Dolorea Huerta
If you don’t know, your labor unions and community organizations, there’s somebody you can ask to guide you. A lot of people, especially in the Latino community, they have this big ballot and all these names and propositions on it, and they say ‘Oh my God’. They don’t know which of these to vote for, so they don’t vote.
-Dolorea Huerta
My kids have lived experiences that could have never been duplicated otherwise. That’s one thing about people who get involved in activism, you live so many experiences that otherwise they wouldn’t be there. This is why peoples’ lives are so enriched.
-Dolorea Huerta
The first time when I was organizing, I went out and started knocking on doors to see if people were registered to vote. I was a door knocker. I didn’t even have the confidence that I could register people, so I just was out there door knocking. That was my first experience.
-Dolorea Huerta
The majority of Latinos in this country are 28 years old or younger. All of those people out there attacking the Latino community, when you see a Latino going down the street with a baby carriage and a couple of children walking beside them, they should say ‘Hey, there goes my social security and my Medicare.’ Those are the people that are going to contribute to keep our social security system funded and our medical system funded.
-Dolorea Huerta
Exercise your right to vote.
-Dolorea Huerta
We know we only have about half of our population that’s voting.
-Dolorea Huerta
We have to convince people that they have the power to elect people. The people they are electing are the ones making the decisions about how our tax dollars are going to be spent. Is it going to be for more jails, or for more schools? For more house services? It’s very important that people understand that, do their research and find out who to vote for.
-Dolorea Huerta
As organizations, we have to find ways to create more opportunities, especially for our young people. A lot of corporations, they have to make opportunities for young people – create internships, for example, even if it’s only half-time.
-Dolorea Huerta
It’s important to realize that we all need to work together. With Weaving Movements, we are all interdependent and we all have to work together. If we could just realize that and understand that, we’ll keep our country strong.
-Dolorea Huerta
Gloria Steinem in the women’s movement. Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority. There are all of these great wonderful women I’ve met that are so inspirational.
-Dolorea Huerta
Going door to door and talking to people, convincing them to vote – this is what I call Organizing 101.
-Dolorea Huerta
Through that organization [Community Service Organization], I met Cesar Chavez. We had this common interest about farm workers. We ultimately left CSO to start the National Farm Workers Organization, which became the United Farm Workers. I was very blessed to have learned some of the skills of basic grassroots organizing from Mr. Ross and then be able to put that into practice in both CSO and the United Farm Workers.
-Dolorea Huerta
I was very fortunate to have known Fred Ross Sr., who was organizing the Community Service Organization (CSO) way back in the late 50’s and early 60’s. I was able to work with him.
-Dolorea Huerta
Once you see the outcomes and the results, and you see how many people are helped and benefitting, you want to keep on doing it because it’s so simple.
-Dolorea Huerta
Leadership is a choice one makes.
-Dolorea Huerta
When you talk about sacrifices, the ones in my family who have sacrificed are my children, because I love what I’m doing. I love the work. I love to go out there and talk about organizing the people. To me, that’s something I really enjoy.
-Dolorea Huerta
I think, if anything, my children are the ones who have sacrificed because I’ve had to too many times be absent from them. But, at the same time, they have lived very enriched lives and probably experienced things they wouldn’t have if not for the movements. So, there are some rewards.
-Dolorea Huerta
Sometimes, we have to promote ourselves. Just go out and be very active about trying to find an opportunity.
-Dolorea Huerta
I hope people become inspired to become active in their community. That’s the important thing.
-Dolorea Huerta
If we can just convince other people to get involved, this could make some major changes in our society. It’s very exhilarating.
-Dolorea Huerta
When a group of people get together, it’s collective power. You know that you’re doing it for the good.
-Dolorea Huerta
I had been a Girl Scout from the time I was 8 to the time I was 18 years old. I had belonged to my church organization and youth groups. But, you never really found a way that you could make a change.
-Dolorea Huerta
Once I learned about grassroots organizing, I got so enamored with it because I thought ‘Wow this is the way you do it!’
-Dolorea Huerta
If we don’t have workers organized into labor unions, we’re in great peril of losing our democracy.
-Dolorea Huerta
How do I stop eleven million people from buying the grape?
-Dolorea Huerta
Why is it that farmworkers feed the nation but they can’t get food stamps?
-Dolorea Huerta
The racist rhetoric from politicians is inspiring people to organize, as more people see what happens by not getting active.
-Dolorea Huerta
My mother was a dominant force in our family. And that was great for me as a young woman, because I never saw that women had to be dominated by men.
-Dolorea Huerta
I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.
-Dolorea Huerta
Among our people, theres not any question about women being strong — even stronger than men — they work in the fields right along with the men. When your survival is at stake, you dont have these questions about yourself like middle — class women do.
-Dolorea Huerta
I say that now we see a lot of hateful rhetoric against Mexicans and the Latino community, but we have a very powerful weapon. And that is our vote. This is the way we can get even with all of the politicians who are insulting us and saying terrible things about our community – by voting them out. And get the good ones. Vote them in.
-Dolorea Huerta
Especially as a teenager, I was always being racially profiled by the police. You just see all this injustice, and you want to do something about it, but you don’t know how.
-Dolorea Huerta
You could really belong to a group of people and with other people, you could really make some significant changes – through the electoral process, of course, by registering people to vote, and by supporting good people who were running for office. For me, it was like I had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
-Dolorea Huerta
Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk.
-Dolorea Huerta
Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.
-Dolorea Huerta
People would say ‘Who is a leader?’ A leader is a person that does the work. It’s very simple. It’s a personal choice for people who choose to put in their time and their commitment to do the work. It’s a personal choice.
-Dolorea Huerta
The thing about nonviolence is that it spreads. When you get people to participate in nonviolent action – whether it’s a fast, a march, a boycott, or a picket line – people hear you, people see you, people are learning from that action.
-Dolorea Huerta
Don’t be a marshmallow. Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk. Stop being vegetables. Work for Justice. Viva the boycott!
-Dolorea Huerta
That’s the history of the world. His story is told, hers isn’t.
-Dolorea Huerta
People can take power over their communities and over their lives. Some people don’t realize they can do that. They think ‘It’s OK for other people, but I myself can’t do it.’ Hopefully, that will come out of the film.
-Dolorea Huerta
My son, Emilio Huerta, is running for congress. He was a young man who was marching and picketing.
-Dolorea Huerta
I quit because I can’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.
-Dolorea Huerta
We criticize and separate ourselves from the process. We’ve got to jump right in there with both feet.
-Dolorea Huerta
As a youngster and being a Latina, you see so much injustice.
-Dolorea Huerta
Honor the hands that harvest your crops.
-Dolorea Huerta
Every minute a chance to change the world…
-Dolorea Huerta
Giving kids clothes and food is one thing, but it’s much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people.
-Dolorea Huerta
The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women’s movement, and the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights.
-Dolorea Huerta
We can’t let people drive wedges between us… because there’s only one human race.
-Dolorea Huerta
When you choose to give up your time and resources to participate in community work, that’s what makes a leader.
-Dolorea Huerta
We as women should shine light on our accomplishments and not feel egotistical when we do. It’s a way to let the world know that we as women can accomplish great things!
-Dolorea Huerta
We just have to convince other people that they have power. This is what they can do by participating to make change, not only in their community, but many times changing in their own lives. Once they participate, they get their sense of power.
-Dolorea Huerta
Every single day we sit down to eat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and at our table we have food that was planted, picked, or harvested by a farm worker. Why is it that the people who do the most sacred work in our nation are the most oppressed, the most exploited?
-Dolorea Huerta
We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for.
-Dolorea Huerta
Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.
-Dolorea Huerta
Respecting other people’s rights is peace.
-Dolorea Huerta
Pride and roots is what it is. It definitely does not mean separation or nationalism in the sense that we want to go back to Mexico.
-Dolorea Huerta
This is a terrific opportunity for young people to learn what the democratic process is about, the way that bills are passed. I explained this whole procedure to the students.
-Dolorea Huerta