Existing comment:
One Life: Dolores Huerta
The farm workers' movement in California was one of the civil rights campaigns of the 1960s that made the country acutely aware of the inequalities undermining its constitutional promise of freedom and dignity for all members of society. A crucial yet lesser-known figure in this struggle is Dolores Huerta (born 1930). Along with César Chávez, Huerta brought the conditions of field laborers to public attention -- including below- poverty-level wages for long days of backbreaking work and precarious living conditions -- galvanizing national solidarity on their behalf.
Huerta was the pragmatic counterpart to the charismatic Chávez, and the pair cofounded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) in 1962. It became the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) in 1966 and eventually the United Farm Workers (UFW). At a time when men dominated organized labor and Mexican American women were expected to dedicate themselves to family, Huerta advanced new models of womanhood as an energetic picket captain, a persuasive lobbyist on the state and national level, and an unyielding contract negotiator. She spearheaded and served as the main strategist for the 1965 national campaign that by 1967 had called on international consumers to boycott table grapes from growers who refused to negotiate with the union. Fearless, eloquent, and passionate for social justice, Huerta ushered through her vision of landmark improvements for farm workers, from higher wages to worker's compensation and the right to collective bargaining.
Curatorial Statement:
The civil rights movement of the 1960s awakened an awareness of social injustice that fueled empowerment struggles among other marginalized groups, including farm workers. In 1965 Mexican American and Filipino grape pickers walked out of the fields in Delano, California, triggering a battle that culminated a decade later in the signing of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act. This exhibition commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of this momentous strike and Dolores Huerta's fight for the rights of agricultural workers.
-- Taína Caragol, Curator for Latino Art and History |