April 21, 2022 • 30 mins
Throughout American history, progress has never come easily, as we’ve been reminded repeatedly over the last few years. It requires hard work, persistence, and passionate individuals banding together to support causes they believe in. Few people know that better than Dolores Huerta, the trailblazing civil rights and labor movement leader who helped farm workers find their voice and power by organizing a strike and boycott among California grape workers in the 1960s in response to horrific working and living conditions. Despite violent backlash, the workers’ steadfast determination over the next five years resulted in health benefits, higher wages, and better, safer living and working conditions.
Sixty years ago, along with Cesar Chavez, Huerta formed the National Farm Workers Association—which later became what is currently America’s most enduring agricultural union, the United Farm Workers. As a direct result of her leadership in the American Labor Movement, countless people have been able to better support themselves and their families and have earned the treatment of respect and dignity they deserve. She has remained on the front lines of nearly every progressive social movement since.
On this episode, Huerta shares with President Clinton her remarkable life story, the experiences she had as a young person that shaped her into a trailblazing activist, and how today—at 92 years old—she still has the motivation and commitment to make a positive difference on women's rights, immigrant rights, labor rights, voting rights, and civil rights through the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
In the early nineteen sixties, grape workers in California earned
less than a dollar an hour, with no brakes, no
access to toilets or cold drinking water, and miserable living conditions.
For years, the growers had pitted Filipino and Mexican American
workers against one another to prevent collective action. All that
(00:23):
changed in September nine, when the unions representing both the
Filipino and Mexican Americans joined together to organize a strike
and a boycott at great personal costs and even in
the face of violent reprisals. The workers held firm for
five long years, but their struggle paid off. In nineteen seventy,
(00:45):
California's grape growers signed their very first union contracts, giving
workers higher wages, benefits including healthcare, and stronger protections. So
why am I telling you this Because for all of
our division and conflict today, we had to remember that
progress has never come easily. It requires hard work, persistence,
(01:09):
and most of all, organizing. Today I have the honor
of speaking with someone who was not only one of
the key organizers of the grape strike and boycott, but
has been in the front lines of nearly every progressive
social movement since together was as our Chavs. In nineteen
sixty two, the lawyers where to form the National farm
(01:31):
Workers Association, which later merged for the Agricultural Workers Organizing
Committee to become the United farm Workers, America's most enduring
agricultural union. She's a trailblazer who embodies the passion and
persistence required to create lasting change. As a direct result
of her leadership in the American labor movement, countless people
(01:52):
have been able to better support themselves and their families
and have been treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. Today,
Dolores is and not showing any sign of slowing down.
She's president of the Dolores square To Foundation, a grassroots
organization that engages and develops leaders working at the intersection
(02:16):
of women's rights, immigrant rights, labor rights, voting rights, and
civil rights at the local level where people's lives can
be changed for the better. Dolores, You're a national treasurer.
Thanks so much for being here today. Thank you for
inviting me. Let's start from the beginning. For our listeners
(02:37):
who don't know as much about you as I do.
Tell us a little bit about how you grew up
and what made you decide to become an organizer. Well,
I actually I was very fortunate that I grew up
in Stockton, California. I was born in New Mexico, and uh,
my family was very always involved in politics. As you know,
(03:00):
people in New Mexico have been there for many generations,
and I remember as a young girl hearing the stories
about who's running for this office, who was running for
that office. My parents divorced and my mother boughts to California.
My father, who was stayed in New Mexico. But he
was always very He was a union organizer, a volunteer
(03:23):
organizer for the for the United mind Workers Union, and
then he ran for the State Assembly in New Mexico
and one but he wasn't there very long because he
was expelled because the UH punched out one of the
other one of the other UH president of the Legislature,
(03:43):
Senator Montoya, who so he was expelled because Montoya, the
Montoya founding, was a big They were big cotton growers
and they were very anti union. And my dad, to
his dying day, was always very very strong union supporter.
Everywhere my dad went, he organized the union. You know.
(04:03):
After World War Two, when he he had been in
the Navy and he came to California and he was
working at an army base and he organized Actually they're
they're more confederation to government epolice. So I sort of
got that sense from my father, and I wish everybody
could have had my childhood because it's Stockton, been, California.
(04:24):
It's between San Francisco and Sacramento. H very a very
diverse community. So many of the people there worked again
in the in the fields and the farms. So we
had people there from the Philippines, from Japan, from China,
from Mexico, the Okys, Uh, we had black families there.
My neighbors were all these people here. My next door
(04:46):
neighbors were immigrants from Italy. Kitty corner they were from Greece,
and my next door neighbors was the Smith family. They
were black. And I say this because a lot of
people didn't have that opportunity to grow up with people
so many different ethnic groups. I like to say I
got my ethnic studies from my friends, and I was
(05:07):
just really blessed by that because I think that really
prepared me for the world. And so uh, I was
very very fortunate not to have grown up in a
situation where racism was not an issue because you know,
we were all of different backgrounds and colors and we
all loved each other. Why do you think it's so
hard in some places for people to feel that level
(05:28):
of comfort with each other across racial and ethnic lins Now, well,
agave because I don't. I believe that they interact with
different people from different backgrounds, and so when people don't
know each other, then they fear each other. And I
think that's really hurt our country. And when we have
a lot of segregation and and then people don't really
understand each other's cultures, they're not realizing that when we
(05:52):
do meet other people from different cultures, it really enriches us,
you know, it makes our our We have a broader
vision of who people are. You know, there's actually a
lot of academic research that shows that diverse groups make
better decisions than homogeneous groups, and better than loan geniuses.
It's fine to be part of a tribe, but it
(06:14):
has to be an inclusive tribalism to work. Anyway. I
was fascinated by your saying that when I speak at schools,
they often tell the students that we have one human race,
that we have a lot of culture, cultures and nationalities,
but we only have one human race that is Homo sapiens,
(06:37):
and that we are all related. And when they say
that this has happened to me a couple of times.
At one time, all of these children, they were like
like for a second and third grader, sitting on the floor,
and I said to them, where all cousins were all related.
They all stood up and started running towards each other
and hugging each other. I want to ask you just
one more question about your early years, because it strikes
(06:59):
me that one of the problems we've got in America
today is that the average human attention spanned has gotten
shorter and shorter and shorter. As we've gotten access to
more information, we take less time to process it and
put it together. So the thing I wanted to ask
you is your first great hit. I guess as an
(07:22):
organizer was a pivotal role you played in a grape
strike and boycott and that went on for five years
and you were a young woman years old. How did
you stick it out for five years? Was it hard?
Was it easy? Did you have to think about it?
Because most people think about going to a march or
(07:44):
several marches. How did you do it well? Even though
it takes that patience, but it was interesting and if
you asked that question, because sometimes I felt that the
farm workers and we're going to give up, but they didn't.
You know, we started with the strike in de Lano,
and then we couldn't win the strike because they were
(08:05):
bringing strike breakers because we're so close in California, we're
so close to Mexico that they could bring in strike
breakers and they would bring them in from the Philippines
and other places. And so we went out on the
boycott because this attorney stru wind stru Wineberg from San Francisco,
he said, why don't you try a boycott because they
had done the great boy the bus boycott there in
(08:25):
the South. And so uh, some of our young volunteers
were now on the hitch hike to New York and
I did the first boycott against a wine company, uh Shenley,
that was also a whiskey company, and we got that
first contract. So then we did this all great boycott.
So I was would go to New York and start
(08:46):
the great boycott there with Mr Fred Ross Senior, the
man who taught us how to organize. So then when
I would come back to de Lano, we're you know,
we're the heart of the great strike. Was that, and
I would feel like really guilty because we hadn't one yet.
And when I would say to the workers, I tried
to apologize to them and said, oh, don't worry, don't
(09:06):
worry wortha We're gonna win. We're gonna win. We're gonna
stay here on strike as long as it takes for
us to win. So so then then that really bolstered
me up, and it maybe gave me a lot a
lot of inspiration because they were willing to be out
there on the picket line, you know, from morning until
until from don from down to too when the sun
(09:29):
went down. Then that I thought I can be out
there in the city asking people of boycott grapes. So
you know, we knew that we were going to win eventually.
And and sus that always had a great statement that
I know that's part of your mantra. Also he said,
the only time that you that you lose us when
you quit. As long as you don't give up, we're
(09:51):
going to win. So all of us felt we that
that strength. You know, of course with Caesar's leadership and
then so many people supporting us that we were go
to win eventually, and of course we did. We'll be
right back. I wanted to skip around a little bit.
(10:18):
In your rich long life, you moved beyond the union
organizers to try to mobilize people to vote and increase
their empowerment through citizenship. And the more you did it,
the more you had to rely on basically persuasion. And
(10:39):
it occurs to me that a lot of people find
that difficult. They find it difficult to talk to people,
to find that difficult to say what's in their mind
and heart? What do you say to people like that?
They are young people all over the world today who
really want to be heard and want to make a difference.
(11:00):
What advice do you give young people who are trying
to find their own voice and use it. You know,
before Season and I started the Union, we came out
of another organization called the Community Service Organization that again, uh,
I think you knew Congressman Edroid Ball very well, who
was the first Latino elected to the City Council Los
(11:21):
Angeles and then became the first congressman. Well, he came
out of that organization and when once we got a
group together, the first action that we took was to
go out and go register voters door to door. That's
the first thing that we did. So and see us
so that the Community Service Organization we dedicated ourselves to
(11:42):
do voter registration, you know, and even though it was
a nonprofit organization, we were very effective in getting out
the vote to get good people elected, and we were
able to pass major, major legislation, uh Like in California,
we passed the law that if you were if you're
a citizen, you could register somebody else to vote. You
(12:04):
wouldn't have to find a deputy register somewhere like they
do in Texas still to this day. Then you could,
you know. So we we were able to register many,
many thousands and thousands of people to vote. So we
carried that tradition also into the United farm Workers. You know,
we put putting a lot of time and registering people
to vote. And then of course in the United Farmworkers
(12:24):
we also endorsed candidates. And I like, I like, and
to like say, I tell him, it's like a football game,
you know, and you have one team that chose up
and the other team doesn't show up. The team that
chose up is gonna win. So we've got to get
out there and get our team elected. And we don't
look at people. We can't pass the legislation that we want.
And I say that the young people, you can march
(12:46):
and you can protest as much as you want. And
that's the kind of good that we do that because
it brings attention to the issues. But if it's not
put into a law, then it can't be impl ment,
it can't be enforced. People cannot be held accountable. Otherwise
we can march and talk and nothing's going to happen.
(13:07):
It will stay the same. So, you know, we just
have to work really really hard, and we can't have
a democracy people don't vote. I mean, that's a foundation
of our democracy, is it for people to be able
to vote and to elect the people that we need.
And we also know that right now our democracy is threatened.
We saw what happened on January the six, you know,
(13:29):
and we see what's happening now in some of the
southern states for their passing laws to oppressed the vote
and especially to keep people like myself, people of color,
from voting. So we've got to work really really hard
to make sure that we keep our democracy. Often one
nice week is as to students like and say to people,
you know, to google the map of the United States
(13:50):
before eighteen forty eight and what you will see is
that one third of the United States was Mexico. And
so when they say to us, Mexican Americans and you know,
to go back where we came from, we say, oh, no,
we were here before the United States was the United
States of America and the North American continent, the South
(14:10):
American continent. These are the indigenous people the continent. You know,
this land was there and is there. So they they
they are not the immigrants, so to speak. The two
immigrants that came to the United States came from Europe,
like my great grandmother on my grandpa's side and uh
my great grandfather on my mother's side, who came from England.
(14:32):
You know. So I think we have to just that's
important with that we you know, really promote ethnic studies.
And I know there's people are that want to take
out any of the books to talk about slavery and
talk about the real history of the United States of America.
But this is important, and this is this is education.
(14:53):
And if I think if every person in the United
States had this education about the two history of the
United States, that that way we could erase a lot
of the racism that exists and take away again those
those arms that they have, those weapons of hatred that
they use to divide people. But it's something that that
can happen because you know, uh. Franklin Delano Roosevelt said
(15:17):
that that the education was the soul of our country.
And during World War World War two, when I try
to take money out of the education in the libraries budgets,
he said, no, we will not take one dime out
of our libraries or one dime out of education, because
education is the soul of our country. And I think
(15:37):
we have to put a lot more money into education
because we know and even in California, when I was
a kid going to school California, and we were like, uh,
I think one or two in terms of the money
that was appropriated for each student, and I think now
we're like number thirty six or something. And many of
(15:57):
the states are in the kind of the same position
and where we do not have enough money going into
our schools for our teachers and our students. And that
I think that's one of the things that we really
have to prioritize and we're going to erase all of
this this hatred that exists right now in our country
because when people are educated, then you know, and what
(16:18):
and when I say educated, I mean having the type
of education that that I'm talking about, the importance of
labor unions, the importance of voting, you know, the importance
of women having gender studies and and kind of start
educating our children to get rid of all of that misogyny, sexism,
homophobia that exists. But I think we can do it,
(16:41):
but we have to make it like a priority, because
I think I hate hate comes from ignorance, and then
we know that that hatred manifests itself and in people
killing other people just because their Mexicans, or their Jews,
or their Blacks or their Asians. So I think we
could actually we this is we could look at this
(17:03):
like a war against ignorance. A war against ignorance. That's
a great phrase. Let me ask you a more personal question.
When you had been doing this work for more than
half your life, you were fifty eight years old, you
were in a peaceful protest in San Francisco when an
officer hit you with a nightstick and broke four of
(17:26):
your ribs and shattered your spleen. Did you think about
giving up then? Were you terrified? What did you think
was gonna happen? Well, it set me back for a while,
but I have to say this though, it never changed
my mind in terms of my commitment to non violence.
(17:46):
You know that we could still win, that we don't
have to use violence to be able to be able
to achieve our goals. And uh, that was that was
And I guess when you go out there and you
start doing activists work, then people are going to attack you.
And I know that you your Selfnesser President has been
the victim of many many verbal attacks, of political attacks
(18:09):
and in my case, and that was a physical attack
and uh at a peaceful protest, But it didn't really determine,
uh in terms of knowing that we have to continue
working to achieve the kind of social and economic justice
that we need in our country. What did you think
about Judge Kanji Brown Jackson being confirmed to the Spring Court?
(18:31):
Now there are four women on the Spring Court. Why
is that important? And how do you think it will
affect young girls growing up? Well, I think it's wonderful
that we have a black woman on the U Supreme Court.
Oh my gosh, that is so incredible. I think it
is a moment of joy for all of us. And
(18:52):
in terms of how it affects young women, I know,
it's it's just gonna be so inspiring for young women
when they see that a woman can can achieve the
highest position, you might say, next to the presidency, but
to be on the U. S Supreme Court, I mean,
that is amazing. And you know, Coretta Scott King said
that we will never have peace in the world until
(19:14):
women take power. Oh and by the way, Mr President,
we have the first Latina on the California State Supreme Court. No,
her name is Patti said it at all. And she
comes from an immigrant family in the Imperial Valley of California,
So that that is also something that we're very proud of.
(19:36):
More after this, let me ask you something else, though.
One of the things that I think is impressive to
me is the work that you were doing through your
own foundation to help communities build local organizations to advanced
(19:56):
social justice. I think one of the week missus of
the Democratic Party, and after you know, the initial civil
rights actions, was that we spent a lot of time
on national politics, but we didn't spend enough time building
organizations and communities that can both build change and then
(20:19):
change people's attitudes about who they elect from the grassroots.
So tell us just a little bit about what you're
doing with the foundation, and while you're doing it well,
going back to that same organizing model that we used
in the CSO and in the United farm Workers, just
meeting with people in their homes, convincing them that they
(20:39):
have power that that again getting them to commit to
understand that nothing will change unless they get involved. And
it's just amazing that once people become active and they
go to school board meetings and city councils meetings and
and they see the changes that network is making. That
could give us some wonderful examples. We had one woman
(21:03):
who came out of our organizing group and uh, she
and her husband and the people are their friends. They
went door to door to and the past petitions and
they got a bond issue passed to build a brand
new state of the art gymnasium for their middle school
because there are pollution down here in current county. In Bakersville,
(21:24):
Kevin mccarthey's district, by the way, it's so bad that
the kids could not even go out and play a
recess because the weather, the weather is so polluted. And
then she decided that they got there, They got the
state of the art gymnasium built. She decided to run
for the school board, and the principal wanted to get
(21:46):
rid of the breakfast program for the farmer good children.
So they got rid of the principle and kept the
breakfast program. And I mean, just as an example, and
so many of them have done these improvements like getting
neighborhood parks, swimming pools, street lights, uh, gutters and and
(22:06):
the sidewalks and connection to sewers, you know. And but
the thing is that they do all of the work themselves,
which is the amazing thing. And then, uh, we had
another group. We did a big project on education in
our local high school here in Bakersfield. They had expelled
twenty students of color in one year, and uh, well
(22:30):
we changed that. We sued them and from tihundred expulsions
it is now down to one. But in addition to that,
they had to start changing their policies there to have
positive behavior intervention systems, you know, they have to have
hispanic heritage amount. They have to have a Black History
Month to end the racism and in that area. So
(22:52):
we our education uh program, we're active in about seventeen
different school districts, coming over two hundred schools and over
the recommendations that and this is the parents and the
students that are doing this work, they have been accepted.
So you know, we we just did a lot of
work out on the census and on redistrant team and
(23:13):
all of the maps that our demographers presented were accepted
by the Independent Commission here in California for the Central Valley.
So we're making a lot of progress. And now we're
building a cultural piece and justice cultural center. Uh. You
know that we want to start this organizing academy. So
this organizing model that we have, we can export it
(23:34):
to other areas because because once people learned that they
have the power to make changes, it's exhilarating. They are
so proud that they know that they were able to
do this work. So it's it's it's it's it's almost miraculous.
But you know, Mr President, I call it democracy an action,
which is exactly what it is. And we say to people,
(23:56):
you have the power. You may not have a high
school diploma or we're gone to college. You may not
speak perfect English or no English. But the thing is
that your power is in your person. And once you
all get together and you take collective action, and you said,
as you said earlier, this is the way that we
make think that make changes and make things happen. And
of course now we're doing a big registration drive and
(24:19):
getting ready for the JUNI elections. I want to remind
everybody that's listening to me that Dolores were too recently
celebrated her ninety's second birthday and she sounds like she's
maybe about forty, just getting ready to put her toe in.
How did you celebrate your birthday? Well, I had a
kind of a quiet celebration with my family and my grandchildren,
(24:43):
and one of my granddaughters is a dancer, and they
brought the indigenous dancers and I got the blessings. I'm
sure you've had those many times, and that was a
wonderful way to just spend my birthday. We will be
having a more public events because we're raising money for
peace and this cultural center. We've raised about eighteen million.
We've got to raise about another maybe another seven to
(25:06):
ten million dollars. But that's gonna be a great center
there because we're gonna have a child care center, youth
development center, the organizing academy, a credit union and auditorium
and many rooms for training people and and having a
place where everybody can come and have their meetings there,
you know. And we want to make it a great
center there for kind of again to promote the all
(25:29):
of the democratic activities that we're that we're doing. I
would say that's to everybody who's listening to us. What
do you agree with everything the Laura said or not?
Wouldn't you like to be ninety two and still living
in the present and for the future. And I think
that that's what we should all aspire to do. I
(25:49):
want you to have a chance to close here. What
do you think the secret to your ability to relentlessly
focus on the future and deal with disappointments and deal
with political setbacks and never be satisfied unless you personally
are trying to do something to my life better for
somebody else. What's the sting? Where did that come from?
(26:12):
And how can you spread it around? Well? I I
can look back and you know I was born during
the depression, and lived through World War Two, and I
can look back and see how many changes have been
made for the better. When I went to college, there
was only a handful of US Latinos in the college system,
(26:35):
you know, not very many women. And we can see
how that has changed. And we can see all of
the improvements that have been made over the years. And
we know we still have uh, we still have a
ways to go to create that perfect union that the
founders of our government you know, wanted for us so
and we know that we can we can achieve it.
That it's a people power, it's a people engagement that
(26:58):
makes it happen. And to me, I can see that
they talk about the democracy as a dream and that
the United States was was an experiment when our founders
taught that they could make this happen. And well, by
the way, we know they got this from the Iroquois, right,
you know, the whole idea of our government. But if
we couldn't achieve it, we just have to, you know,
(27:20):
just get more people to understand that, more people to
commit to it. And I think some times when you're
an organizer, it's like you go around with like magic
dust and you you know, are able to put that
magic dust on people and say, look, we can do this.
You can do it together. We can make this that
we can achieve the dream of democracy. But we just
(27:43):
all have to work together. And to me that it's
just it's like finding the polit of goal at the
end of the rainbow. It's there, but we just have
to get there together to make it happen. And so
that's what keeps me going because I do believe in
their dream of democracy and knowing that we ordinary people
that we can achieve it. We've got to say how
much money people might have on the other side, we
(28:05):
always have to remember that we the people that there
are more of us, and as long as we work
in a united and non violent way, that we can
achieve that that dream so that people can be can
have a sustainable income income you know, they can be
safe and uh and healthy. We can make it happen.
(28:26):
So that's what keeps me going, and I want to
keep going as long as I possibly can to reach
other people, especially those in Texas. Well. You stay self
and healthy because you make me feel ten years younger
every time I talk to you. Thank you so much,
We love you, Thank you so much. Why am I
(28:48):
telling you. This is a production of our Heart Radio,
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(29:12):
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(29:33):
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In the early nineteen sixties, grape workers in California earned
less than a dollar an hour, with no brakes, no
access to toilets or cold drinking water, and miserable living conditions.
For years, the growers had pitted Filipino and Mexican American
workers against one another to prevent collective action. All that
(00:23):
changed in September nine, when the unions representing both the
Filipino and Mexican Americans joined together to organize a strike
and a boycott at great personal costs and even in
the face of violent reprisals. The workers held firm for
five long years, but their struggle paid off. In nineteen seventy,
(00:45):
California's grape growers signed their very first union contracts, giving
workers higher wages, benefits including healthcare, and stronger protections. So
why am I telling you this Because for all of
our division and conflict today, we had to remember that
progress has never come easily. It requires hard work, persistence,
(01:09):
and most of all, organizing. Today I have the honor
of speaking with someone who was not only one of
the key organizers of the grape strike and boycott, but
has been in the front lines of nearly every progressive
social movement since together was as our Chavs. In nineteen
sixty two, the lawyers where to form the National farm
(01:31):
Workers Association, which later merged for the Agricultural Workers Organizing
Committee to become the United farm Workers, America's most enduring
agricultural union. She's a trailblazer who embodies the passion and
persistence required to create lasting change. As a direct result
of her leadership in the American labor movement, countless people
(01:52):
have been able to better support themselves and their families
and have been treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. Today,
Dolores is and not showing any sign of slowing down.
She's president of the Dolores square To Foundation, a grassroots
organization that engages and develops leaders working at the intersection
(02:16):
of women's rights, immigrant rights, labor rights, voting rights, and
civil rights at the local level where people's lives can
be changed for the better. Dolores, You're a national treasurer.
Thanks so much for being here today. Thank you for
inviting me. Let's start from the beginning. For our listeners
(02:37):
who don't know as much about you as I do.
Tell us a little bit about how you grew up
and what made you decide to become an organizer. Well,
I actually I was very fortunate that I grew up
in Stockton, California. I was born in New Mexico, and uh,
my family was very always involved in politics. As you know,
(03:00):
people in New Mexico have been there for many generations,
and I remember as a young girl hearing the stories
about who's running for this office, who was running for
that office. My parents divorced and my mother boughts to California.
My father, who was stayed in New Mexico. But he
was always very He was a union organizer, a volunteer
(03:23):
organizer for the for the United mind Workers Union, and
then he ran for the State Assembly in New Mexico
and one but he wasn't there very long because he
was expelled because the UH punched out one of the
other one of the other UH president of the Legislature,
(03:43):
Senator Montoya, who so he was expelled because Montoya, the
Montoya founding, was a big They were big cotton growers
and they were very anti union. And my dad, to
his dying day, was always very very strong union supporter.
Everywhere my dad went, he organized the union. You know.
(04:03):
After World War Two, when he he had been in
the Navy and he came to California and he was
working at an army base and he organized Actually they're
they're more confederation to government epolice. So I sort of
got that sense from my father, and I wish everybody
could have had my childhood because it's Stockton, been, California.
(04:24):
It's between San Francisco and Sacramento. H very a very
diverse community. So many of the people there worked again
in the in the fields and the farms. So we
had people there from the Philippines, from Japan, from China,
from Mexico, the Okys, Uh, we had black families there.
My neighbors were all these people here. My next door
(04:46):
neighbors were immigrants from Italy. Kitty corner they were from Greece,
and my next door neighbors was the Smith family. They
were black. And I say this because a lot of
people didn't have that opportunity to grow up with people
so many different ethnic groups. I like to say I
got my ethnic studies from my friends, and I was
(05:07):
just really blessed by that because I think that really
prepared me for the world. And so uh, I was
very very fortunate not to have grown up in a
situation where racism was not an issue because you know,
we were all of different backgrounds and colors and we
all loved each other. Why do you think it's so
hard in some places for people to feel that level
(05:28):
of comfort with each other across racial and ethnic lins Now, well,
agave because I don't. I believe that they interact with
different people from different backgrounds, and so when people don't
know each other, then they fear each other. And I
think that's really hurt our country. And when we have
a lot of segregation and and then people don't really
understand each other's cultures, they're not realizing that when we
(05:52):
do meet other people from different cultures, it really enriches us,
you know, it makes our our We have a broader
vision of who people are. You know, there's actually a
lot of academic research that shows that diverse groups make
better decisions than homogeneous groups, and better than loan geniuses.
It's fine to be part of a tribe, but it
(06:14):
has to be an inclusive tribalism to work. Anyway. I
was fascinated by your saying that when I speak at schools,
they often tell the students that we have one human race,
that we have a lot of culture, cultures and nationalities,
but we only have one human race that is Homo sapiens,
(06:37):
and that we are all related. And when they say
that this has happened to me a couple of times.
At one time, all of these children, they were like
like for a second and third grader, sitting on the floor,
and I said to them, where all cousins were all related.
They all stood up and started running towards each other
and hugging each other. I want to ask you just
one more question about your early years, because it strikes
(06:59):
me that one of the problems we've got in America
today is that the average human attention spanned has gotten
shorter and shorter and shorter. As we've gotten access to
more information, we take less time to process it and
put it together. So the thing I wanted to ask
you is your first great hit. I guess as an
(07:22):
organizer was a pivotal role you played in a grape
strike and boycott and that went on for five years
and you were a young woman years old. How did
you stick it out for five years? Was it hard?
Was it easy? Did you have to think about it?
Because most people think about going to a march or
(07:44):
several marches. How did you do it well? Even though
it takes that patience, but it was interesting and if
you asked that question, because sometimes I felt that the
farm workers and we're going to give up, but they didn't.
You know, we started with the strike in de Lano,
and then we couldn't win the strike because they were
(08:05):
bringing strike breakers because we're so close in California, we're
so close to Mexico that they could bring in strike
breakers and they would bring them in from the Philippines
and other places. And so we went out on the
boycott because this attorney stru wind stru Wineberg from San Francisco,
he said, why don't you try a boycott because they
had done the great boy the bus boycott there in
(08:25):
the South. And so uh, some of our young volunteers
were now on the hitch hike to New York and
I did the first boycott against a wine company, uh Shenley,
that was also a whiskey company, and we got that
first contract. So then we did this all great boycott.
So I was would go to New York and start
(08:46):
the great boycott there with Mr Fred Ross Senior, the
man who taught us how to organize. So then when
I would come back to de Lano, we're you know,
we're the heart of the great strike. Was that, and
I would feel like really guilty because we hadn't one yet.
And when I would say to the workers, I tried
to apologize to them and said, oh, don't worry, don't
(09:06):
worry wortha We're gonna win. We're gonna win. We're gonna
stay here on strike as long as it takes for
us to win. So so then then that really bolstered
me up, and it maybe gave me a lot a
lot of inspiration because they were willing to be out
there on the picket line, you know, from morning until
until from don from down to too when the sun
(09:29):
went down. Then that I thought I can be out
there in the city asking people of boycott grapes. So
you know, we knew that we were going to win eventually.
And and sus that always had a great statement that
I know that's part of your mantra. Also he said,
the only time that you that you lose us when
you quit. As long as you don't give up, we're
(09:51):
going to win. So all of us felt we that
that strength. You know, of course with Caesar's leadership and
then so many people supporting us that we were go
to win eventually, and of course we did. We'll be
right back. I wanted to skip around a little bit.
(10:18):
In your rich long life, you moved beyond the union
organizers to try to mobilize people to vote and increase
their empowerment through citizenship. And the more you did it,
the more you had to rely on basically persuasion. And
(10:39):
it occurs to me that a lot of people find
that difficult. They find it difficult to talk to people,
to find that difficult to say what's in their mind
and heart? What do you say to people like that?
They are young people all over the world today who
really want to be heard and want to make a difference.
(11:00):
What advice do you give young people who are trying
to find their own voice and use it. You know,
before Season and I started the Union, we came out
of another organization called the Community Service Organization that again, uh,
I think you knew Congressman Edroid Ball very well, who
was the first Latino elected to the City Council Los
(11:21):
Angeles and then became the first congressman. Well, he came
out of that organization and when once we got a
group together, the first action that we took was to
go out and go register voters door to door. That's
the first thing that we did. So and see us
so that the Community Service Organization we dedicated ourselves to
(11:42):
do voter registration, you know, and even though it was
a nonprofit organization, we were very effective in getting out
the vote to get good people elected, and we were
able to pass major, major legislation, uh Like in California,
we passed the law that if you were if you're
a citizen, you could register somebody else to vote. You
(12:04):
wouldn't have to find a deputy register somewhere like they
do in Texas still to this day. Then you could,
you know. So we we were able to register many,
many thousands and thousands of people to vote. So we
carried that tradition also into the United farm Workers. You know,
we put putting a lot of time and registering people
to vote. And then of course in the United Farmworkers
(12:24):
we also endorsed candidates. And I like, I like, and
to like say, I tell him, it's like a football game,
you know, and you have one team that chose up
and the other team doesn't show up. The team that
chose up is gonna win. So we've got to get
out there and get our team elected. And we don't
look at people. We can't pass the legislation that we want.
And I say that the young people, you can march
(12:46):
and you can protest as much as you want. And
that's the kind of good that we do that because
it brings attention to the issues. But if it's not
put into a law, then it can't be impl ment,
it can't be enforced. People cannot be held accountable. Otherwise
we can march and talk and nothing's going to happen.
(13:07):
It will stay the same. So, you know, we just
have to work really really hard, and we can't have
a democracy people don't vote. I mean, that's a foundation
of our democracy, is it for people to be able
to vote and to elect the people that we need.
And we also know that right now our democracy is threatened.
We saw what happened on January the six, you know,
(13:29):
and we see what's happening now in some of the
southern states for their passing laws to oppressed the vote
and especially to keep people like myself, people of color,
from voting. So we've got to work really really hard
to make sure that we keep our democracy. Often one
nice week is as to students like and say to people,
you know, to google the map of the United States
(13:50):
before eighteen forty eight and what you will see is
that one third of the United States was Mexico. And
so when they say to us, Mexican Americans and you know,
to go back where we came from, we say, oh, no,
we were here before the United States was the United
States of America and the North American continent, the South
(14:10):
American continent. These are the indigenous people the continent. You know,
this land was there and is there. So they they
they are not the immigrants, so to speak. The two
immigrants that came to the United States came from Europe,
like my great grandmother on my grandpa's side and uh
my great grandfather on my mother's side, who came from England.
(14:32):
You know. So I think we have to just that's
important with that we you know, really promote ethnic studies.
And I know there's people are that want to take
out any of the books to talk about slavery and
talk about the real history of the United States of America.
But this is important, and this is this is education.
(14:53):
And if I think if every person in the United
States had this education about the two history of the
United States, that that way we could erase a lot
of the racism that exists and take away again those
those arms that they have, those weapons of hatred that
they use to divide people. But it's something that that
can happen because you know, uh. Franklin Delano Roosevelt said
(15:17):
that that the education was the soul of our country.
And during World War World War two, when I try
to take money out of the education in the libraries budgets,
he said, no, we will not take one dime out
of our libraries or one dime out of education, because
education is the soul of our country. And I think
(15:37):
we have to put a lot more money into education
because we know and even in California, when I was
a kid going to school California, and we were like, uh,
I think one or two in terms of the money
that was appropriated for each student, and I think now
we're like number thirty six or something. And many of
(15:57):
the states are in the kind of the same position
and where we do not have enough money going into
our schools for our teachers and our students. And that
I think that's one of the things that we really
have to prioritize and we're going to erase all of
this this hatred that exists right now in our country
because when people are educated, then you know, and what
(16:18):
and when I say educated, I mean having the type
of education that that I'm talking about, the importance of
labor unions, the importance of voting, you know, the importance
of women having gender studies and and kind of start
educating our children to get rid of all of that misogyny, sexism,
homophobia that exists. But I think we can do it,
(16:41):
but we have to make it like a priority, because
I think I hate hate comes from ignorance, and then
we know that that hatred manifests itself and in people
killing other people just because their Mexicans, or their Jews,
or their Blacks or their Asians. So I think we
could actually we this is we could look at this
(17:03):
like a war against ignorance. A war against ignorance. That's
a great phrase. Let me ask you a more personal question.
When you had been doing this work for more than
half your life, you were fifty eight years old, you
were in a peaceful protest in San Francisco when an
officer hit you with a nightstick and broke four of
(17:26):
your ribs and shattered your spleen. Did you think about
giving up then? Were you terrified? What did you think
was gonna happen? Well, it set me back for a while,
but I have to say this though, it never changed
my mind in terms of my commitment to non violence.
(17:46):
You know that we could still win, that we don't
have to use violence to be able to be able
to achieve our goals. And uh, that was that was
And I guess when you go out there and you
start doing activists work, then people are going to attack you.
And I know that you your Selfnesser President has been
the victim of many many verbal attacks, of political attacks
(18:09):
and in my case, and that was a physical attack
and uh at a peaceful protest, But it didn't really determine,
uh in terms of knowing that we have to continue
working to achieve the kind of social and economic justice
that we need in our country. What did you think
about Judge Kanji Brown Jackson being confirmed to the Spring Court?
(18:31):
Now there are four women on the Spring Court. Why
is that important? And how do you think it will
affect young girls growing up? Well, I think it's wonderful
that we have a black woman on the U Supreme Court.
Oh my gosh, that is so incredible. I think it
is a moment of joy for all of us. And
(18:52):
in terms of how it affects young women, I know,
it's it's just gonna be so inspiring for young women
when they see that a woman can can achieve the
highest position, you might say, next to the presidency, but
to be on the U. S Supreme Court, I mean,
that is amazing. And you know, Coretta Scott King said
that we will never have peace in the world until
(19:14):
women take power. Oh and by the way, Mr President,
we have the first Latina on the California State Supreme Court. No,
her name is Patti said it at all. And she
comes from an immigrant family in the Imperial Valley of California,
So that that is also something that we're very proud of.
(19:36):
More after this, let me ask you something else, though.
One of the things that I think is impressive to
me is the work that you were doing through your
own foundation to help communities build local organizations to advanced
(19:56):
social justice. I think one of the week missus of
the Democratic Party, and after you know, the initial civil
rights actions, was that we spent a lot of time
on national politics, but we didn't spend enough time building
organizations and communities that can both build change and then
(20:19):
change people's attitudes about who they elect from the grassroots.
So tell us just a little bit about what you're
doing with the foundation, and while you're doing it well,
going back to that same organizing model that we used
in the CSO and in the United farm Workers, just
meeting with people in their homes, convincing them that they
(20:39):
have power that that again getting them to commit to
understand that nothing will change unless they get involved. And
it's just amazing that once people become active and they
go to school board meetings and city councils meetings and
and they see the changes that network is making. That
could give us some wonderful examples. We had one woman
(21:03):
who came out of our organizing group and uh, she
and her husband and the people are their friends. They
went door to door to and the past petitions and
they got a bond issue passed to build a brand
new state of the art gymnasium for their middle school
because there are pollution down here in current county. In Bakersville,
(21:24):
Kevin mccarthey's district, by the way, it's so bad that
the kids could not even go out and play a
recess because the weather, the weather is so polluted. And
then she decided that they got there, They got the
state of the art gymnasium built. She decided to run
for the school board, and the principal wanted to get
(21:46):
rid of the breakfast program for the farmer good children.
So they got rid of the principle and kept the
breakfast program. And I mean, just as an example, and
so many of them have done these improvements like getting
neighborhood parks, swimming pools, street lights, uh, gutters and and
(22:06):
the sidewalks and connection to sewers, you know. And but
the thing is that they do all of the work themselves,
which is the amazing thing. And then, uh, we had
another group. We did a big project on education in
our local high school here in Bakersfield. They had expelled
twenty students of color in one year, and uh, well
(22:30):
we changed that. We sued them and from tihundred expulsions
it is now down to one. But in addition to that,
they had to start changing their policies there to have
positive behavior intervention systems, you know, they have to have
hispanic heritage amount. They have to have a Black History
Month to end the racism and in that area. So
(22:52):
we our education uh program, we're active in about seventeen
different school districts, coming over two hundred schools and over
the recommendations that and this is the parents and the
students that are doing this work, they have been accepted.
So you know, we we just did a lot of
work out on the census and on redistrant team and
(23:13):
all of the maps that our demographers presented were accepted
by the Independent Commission here in California for the Central Valley.
So we're making a lot of progress. And now we're
building a cultural piece and justice cultural center. Uh. You
know that we want to start this organizing academy. So
this organizing model that we have, we can export it
(23:34):
to other areas because because once people learned that they
have the power to make changes, it's exhilarating. They are
so proud that they know that they were able to
do this work. So it's it's it's it's it's almost miraculous.
But you know, Mr President, I call it democracy an action,
which is exactly what it is. And we say to people,
(23:56):
you have the power. You may not have a high
school diploma or we're gone to college. You may not
speak perfect English or no English. But the thing is
that your power is in your person. And once you
all get together and you take collective action, and you said,
as you said earlier, this is the way that we
make think that make changes and make things happen. And
of course now we're doing a big registration drive and
(24:19):
getting ready for the JUNI elections. I want to remind
everybody that's listening to me that Dolores were too recently
celebrated her ninety's second birthday and she sounds like she's
maybe about forty, just getting ready to put her toe in.
How did you celebrate your birthday? Well, I had a
kind of a quiet celebration with my family and my grandchildren,
(24:43):
and one of my granddaughters is a dancer, and they
brought the indigenous dancers and I got the blessings. I'm
sure you've had those many times, and that was a
wonderful way to just spend my birthday. We will be
having a more public events because we're raising money for
peace and this cultural center. We've raised about eighteen million.
We've got to raise about another maybe another seven to
(25:06):
ten million dollars. But that's gonna be a great center
there because we're gonna have a child care center, youth
development center, the organizing academy, a credit union and auditorium
and many rooms for training people and and having a
place where everybody can come and have their meetings there,
you know. And we want to make it a great
center there for kind of again to promote the all
(25:29):
of the democratic activities that we're that we're doing. I
would say that's to everybody who's listening to us. What
do you agree with everything the Laura said or not?
Wouldn't you like to be ninety two and still living
in the present and for the future. And I think
that that's what we should all aspire to do. I
(25:49):
want you to have a chance to close here. What
do you think the secret to your ability to relentlessly
focus on the future and deal with disappointments and deal
with political setbacks and never be satisfied unless you personally
are trying to do something to my life better for
somebody else. What's the sting? Where did that come from?
(26:12):
And how can you spread it around? Well? I I
can look back and you know I was born during
the depression, and lived through World War Two, and I
can look back and see how many changes have been
made for the better. When I went to college, there
was only a handful of US Latinos in the college system,
(26:35):
you know, not very many women. And we can see
how that has changed. And we can see all of
the improvements that have been made over the years. And
we know we still have uh, we still have a
ways to go to create that perfect union that the
founders of our government you know, wanted for us so
and we know that we can we can achieve it.
That it's a people power, it's a people engagement that
(26:58):
makes it happen. And to me, I can see that
they talk about the democracy as a dream and that
the United States was was an experiment when our founders
taught that they could make this happen. And well, by
the way, we know they got this from the Iroquois, right,
you know, the whole idea of our government. But if
we couldn't achieve it, we just have to, you know,
(27:20):
just get more people to understand that, more people to
commit to it. And I think some times when you're
an organizer, it's like you go around with like magic
dust and you you know, are able to put that
magic dust on people and say, look, we can do this.
You can do it together. We can make this that
we can achieve the dream of democracy. But we just
(27:43):
all have to work together. And to me that it's
just it's like finding the polit of goal at the
end of the rainbow. It's there, but we just have
to get there together to make it happen. And so
that's what keeps me going because I do believe in
their dream of democracy and knowing that we ordinary people
that we can achieve it. We've got to say how
much money people might have on the other side, we
(28:05):
always have to remember that we the people that there
are more of us, and as long as we work
in a united and non violent way, that we can
achieve that that dream so that people can be can
have a sustainable income income you know, they can be
safe and uh and healthy. We can make it happen.
(28:26):
So that's what keeps me going, and I want to
keep going as long as I possibly can to reach
other people, especially those in Texas. Well. You stay self
and healthy because you make me feel ten years younger
every time I talk to you. Thank you so much,
We love you, Thank you so much. Why am I
(28:48):
telling you. This is a production of our Heart Radio,
the Clinton Foundation and at Will Medium. Our executive producers
are Craig Menascian and Will Malnati. Our production team includes
Jamison Katsufa, Tom Galton, Sara Horowitz, and Jake Young, with
production support from Liz Raferee and Josh Fornham. Original music
by Wat White. Special thanks to John Sides, John Davidson,
(29:12):
on hell Orina, Corey Gansley, Kevin thurm Oscar Flores, and
all our dedicated staff and partners at the Clinton Foundation. Hi.
I'm Stephanie Street, Executive director of the Clinton Foundation, where
we work every single day to advance President Clinton's commitment
(29:33):
to public service and improve lives across the country and
around the world. President Clinton often reminds us that we're
all in this together, that we rise or fall together.
That's why in the face of crisis, we enter the
call we act. At the Clinton Presidential Center, We've been
proud to work together with partners to serve hundreds of
(29:54):
thousands of meals to those struggling, to put food on
the table, to get books, early learning and education sational
resources into the hands of parents, families, and educators who
are navigating the realities of remote learning and need it most,
and the Center continues to serve as an educational and
cultural institution focused on cultivating the next generation of leaders
(30:15):
to make our future brighter than ever. Learn more about
this work and see how you can get involved visit
www dot Clinton Foundation dot org. Slash podcast
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