Dolores Huerta is a giant within the labor movement. She got her start in the movement early, pivoting from her work as a young teacher in California’s Central Valley community organizing when she saw how her students and their families were struggling. She hasn’t stopped since, and has spent the last seven decades fighting for farmworkers rights, including for fair wages, safer working conditions, and the very right for workers to collectively organize. She’s helped shape the environmental justice movement in the United States, and has proven a tireless advocate for civil rights and women’s rights. She is perhaps best known for co-founding what would become the United Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez in 1962s, and currently, she serves as the founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which advocates for social justice by empowering marginalized communities through grassroots organizing, civic engagement, and education initiatives.
Journal Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farren spoke with Huerta in late March just ahead of the Bioneers conference Berkeley, and ahead of her 94th birthday, which was on April 10.