Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez as Civil Rights Activists
Since the early 1900’s, farm workers have been treated as though they were slaves, getting paid barely anything with terrible working conditions. It was not until Dolores Huerta came about that things for farm workers started to change and get better. Whether she was a Civil Rights hero or just a very outspoken, passionate woman, Dolores Huerta had a dream that farm workers could one day have better working conditions and she spent day and night fighting to do so. Dolores and her good friend Cesar chavez worked to create the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) which is a labor union for farm workers, and since then everything has changed.
The UFW was a complete different type of organization in the US in the early 1900’s. The reason why was people were starting to feel like they could really change the world. The UFW was advocating for a political change for farm workers who were underpaid and treated as if they were slave workers. They were trying to give back power to the powerless. Later on the movement became even more political when Senator Kennedy stood on UFW’s side and advocated for the mexican american farm workers. The UFW helped campaign for Kennedy’s win, so he would help them, but he was later assassinated. For the people involved in the movement, they were labeled as lower class. The workers did not get paid a lot but they worked probably the most in society. They were treated almost as slaves and their job didn’t feel like a normal everyday job, like people in the upper class have. The problem is, is that we cannot live without what is grown in the fields, yet the people who work in the fields get paid the least amount. So the workers start looking for a change and that change was the UFW.
The UFW had many strategies that helped influence and motivate its participants. One strategy in this movement was strikes. There were many strikes throughout the years that helped with farmworker wage increase. Like for example, in 1965 they had two strikes against McFarland Rose farm, where around 85 strikers came to protest. Eventually the rose farm gave in and gave the workers their wage increase and the workers went back to work. The only big problem with all of this was that they weren’t necessarily getting any recognition toward the union and no contacts were getting signed. This led to the boycotting of the grapes, which was another big strategy used. They did this because “pickers” (people who would go out and pick the grapes) the ones on strike were getting harrassed by growers and police. So to try to make an impact, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Hueta organized a non-violent boycott against any and all grapes or vineyards across north america. They believed that if people across the US saw their non-violent protest that they would want to get involved and soon enough the grape industry would have to do something. But what Dolores and Cesar did not realize was that this boycott against grapes was also setting awareness to the harsh reality of racism and poor living conditions in other areas around the US. Which then made people want to join the movement and all together, millions of people stopped buying grapes. Eventually, the two major corporations of grape companies gave into the UFW because they were a big part of the economic empire and if they were to fail, it would be very bad. And they signed a contract with them that included timed pay increase, health, and other benefits.
Even though the UFW was becoming a popular movement across the US, they also had many enemies. The whole reason why the UFW had started was because Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez wanted help the mexican american farmworkers get better pay and to be treated with more respect and to have more power. Well in their attempts in doing so, they faced a lot of trouble with police brutality and white americans, mostly white males. When they were at a protest or on strike, police and sheriffs were not afraid to beat them whether they were male or female. People would say “Brown was ugly” and treating all the mexican americans like they weren’t worth anything. Even later on at a fundraiser George Bush was attending, Dolores Huerta was trying to follow police commands when she was beaten almost to death by a police officer. She had spent months in the hospital after the incident. Another enemy the workers had to face was pesticides that were sprayed on the fields. The pesticides were killing the farmworkers and causing them to get extremely sick from being poisoned. It even was causing birth defects and cancer and a lot of people's skin and eyes to burn. This would cause them to have to leave the fields to take breaks to get fresh air but for some they just got too sick and died from it. So the UFW made it to where the workers could have a safe environment to work by making pesticide regulations in all of their contracts. But even though the UFW had enemies they also had created alliances with other social movements such as the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) founded by Dolores, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by Larry Itliong, and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. They were able to have these alliances because two out of the three Dolores and Cesar were already in charge of and for the AWOC, it united with them because they had the same goals as the union to get worker’s rights.
The leaders in the UFW were the founders of the organization, Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez. Cesar wanted to create the union and he wanted Dolores involved because he knew she was passionate about the issue and he knew she could help involve women into the movement. When Cesar first met Dolores he was jealous of her, just like all men were at the time, because they believed a woman should stick the traditional stay at home woman stereotype. Cesar soon came to realize that this movement need Dolores and they soon became close friends. A lot of the ideas were shared between the two, they would argue a lot but they would always find common ground based on them having the same goals. Their goal being to help poorly treated mexican american farmworkers who basically get treated like they are slave workers.
Eventually over time, the movement started to change and grow. Over the years we saw the movement grow after the Grape Boycott and after that it kept growing and it became a nationwide organization that still helps farm workers today. When Cesar Chavez died in 1993, we saw new leadership, Arturo Rodriguez, who became Cesar Chavez’s successor instead of Dolores because a lot of people felt that she was not fit to be president. Dolores chose not to fight against the decision because she knew it would be a long drawn out process that she would not win. And eventually Dolores left the UFW and she decided to put her passion and help somewhere else and that’s when she started the Dolores Huerta Foundation, that helps small town people struggling with some of the same issues. The UFW continues to organize with agricultural sectors of california and has many contracts that help farmworks everywhere.
Throughout the years there have been many different movements that show similarities and differences to the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). Some of those movements include the Women’s March of 1956 and the Black Panthers. The reason why the Women’s March of 1956 is compared to the UFW is because in this movement women were fighting for housing, education, equal pay , equal rights and child care provisions, which then eventually lead to them protesting/marching for the extension of pass laws for african american women. This is similar to what the UFW was fighting for because the UFW was fighting for equal rights and equal pay for mexican american farmworkers who did not have good housing and education. Another way it is similar is because in the UFW, they believed in only non-violent protest and in the women’s march they had to be cautious and non-violent and only could walk in two’s and three’s so they wouldn’t get arrested. Some ways the Women’s March of 1956 was different was that it was only women and a lot of it was based around the fear of protecting their children and themselves from male figure, while the UFW was male and female and was driven on the fact that they wanted equal rights from the white, privileged upper class. The other movement that is similar but yet has some differences from the UFW is the Black Panthers. The Black Panthers were founded in 1966 and they were fighting for full employment, decent housing, education and an end to police brutality. Just like the Women’s March of 1956, this is similar to the UFW because they all wanted to end police brutality and to have equal rights. Another thing that is similar to the Black Panthers and the UFW is that they both wanted power. Dolores said in one of her speeches at a protest that they wanted to give power back to the powerless and the Black Panthers wanted “Black power”. One major difference between these two movements, the UFW and the Black Panthers, is that the Black Panthers wanted violence. They would carry guns just to intimidate police. One person in the Black Panther Documentary: Vanguard of the Revolution said “People need to bleed a little”. This is completely different from the UFW who’s whole movement was established on non-violence. Another difference between the two would be leadership. In the UFW, Dolores and Cesar worked hand in hand and even though they argued a lot they still knew about everything going on in their organization. While in the Black Panthers, we see two “leaders” or figure heads, Huey and Eldridge who don’t necessarily communicate with one another and Huey eventually ends up in prison and Eldridge is left making a mess of everything.
Still till this day, Dolores is out making a difference in the world and without her, farmworkers would not have the UFW that gives them a better working environment. Since 1962, women and men of all ages have been able to fight for they right to have equal pay to have better working conditions and it's all because of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez who believed that they could make a difference in the world.
