DH

Dolores Huerta Speech:
It was wonderful to see Dolores Huerta speaking at Notre Dame de Namur. She is someone who is not only a role model for farm workers  women leaders and people involved in social justice but a person my own family has known for many years. My father first met her when he was a college student picking strawberries on one of the first farms organized by the United Farm Workers. Dolores Huerta was always a leader of the movement to empower agricultural workers through unionization. She worked hand in hand with Cesar Chavez to fight for the rights of some of the poorest and badly treated workers in our country. She was never held back by some of the prejudices against women in the labor movement or Latino culture. To this day Dolores Huerta is a fighter of social justice and speaks of the themes of the importance of education and fairness to immigrants. She unites many of the different parts of the social justice movement. Woman's rights, access to education, immigrant rights, freedom of speech and unionization. It was amazing to see someone who I had met in person at many democratic party meetings with my father move the crowd at NDNU. She was so passionate about her beliefs and the power of people to make change that she had the entire crowd cheering. After the speech my father and I were able to talk to her one on one. Seeing such a proud and strong Latina provided me with a powerful role model as a young Latina myself.