All language subtitles for dolores.2017.limited.dvdrip.x264-lpd

I'm going to bring
her out here right now.

Dolores.

While the Reverend
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Was leading the charge
in the South,

one California woman
was fighting on the front lines

for workers' rights.

And while her name is rarely
mentioned in the history books,

she may just be

the most vocal activist
you've never heard of.

Come along, brothers.
We are waiting for you!

Dolores Huerta helped
lead a worldwide grape boycott

that forced growers to agree

to some of the country's
first farmworker contracts.

Viva la cause!

Viva la huelgal.

She's the first general
that I followed into war.

The workers are on the rise.

Dolores Huerta,
who is an old friend of mine...

What she is, she's an insult
to the farmworker.

Why are the growers and
the teamsters so against her?

Because they're threatened.

We're never giving up.

Dolores is an icon.

Dolores Huerta has said

Republicans hate Latinos.

She also writes

the alternative to capitalism is
democratic socialism.

She's not afraid

to speak truth to power.

She's a clown.

We thank you
for all you have done

and all you still do

to promote the dignity
and human rights

of America's family.

She's a civil rights hero.

She's been beaten up
and she's gone to jail.

She's a very volatile
individual.

We always like to say

that we didn't cross the border,
the border crossed us.

The FBI knew

how dangerous Dolores was.

Conservatives on
the Texas Board of Education

removed the legendary farmworker
organizer Dolores Huerta

from the state social studies
curriculum.

I got to tell you,
I never heard of this woman.

We've really got

to set the record straight.

I mean, women cannot be written
out of history.

You were a young girl,

growing up in America
in the '40s.

You must have had a dream.

I guess my only dream
was just to be accepted.

I think that's what
a lot of young children feel,

just to be accepted for what you
are and that's not possible.

Tell me when
you were first aware

of having a social conscience.

I think that
I felt it very deeply

as a teenager and it was mostly
because of the police brutality

against Mexicans and blacks,

the kids that I grew up with,

and you find out that
the justice, it's not there.

The equality isn't there.

If you were coming of age
in the 19505

in California
in the San Joaquin Valley,

you were coming of age
in a time of conformity.

Everybody was being fit
into a mold,

and if you were Dolores Huerta,

there was no mold.

My mom, she grew up in the '40s,

you know, like the dances,
the bebop, the big band,

the swing, you know.

She's an American girl,
you know.

Back in those days,
all of the Latina women

got married very young...
15,16,17 years old.

My first husband,
we had a lot in common.

We were both into jazz,

but I don't think that
we were ready for marriage yet.

Then my second husband,
we had kind of a culture clash

because of the way
that I grew up

and the way that he grew up.

My mother was a single parent,
she was a businesswoman,

and like her,
I worked all the time.

You know, my mother-in-law
could never understand why

I didn't just stay home
with the children.

And so, Dolores talks about
her life as a young mother

and as a married woman

and not feeling
that was quite enough,

that she needed to do
more than that.

That's when she met Fred Ross.

When I met Fred
Ross and he talked to me

about how people could
get together

in an organization and really
start changing things,

to me it was just a revelation.

LORI de LEON: Fred Ross
was a community organizer

with the Community Service
Organization

who developed house meetings.

You're on the ground,

identifying individuals
who are willing, you know,

to do the work
to make the communities better.

I still remember
my first house meeting.

Fred showed us pictures
of the improvements

that they had done
in East Los Angeles,

like bringing in
street lights and sidewalks,

bringing in health clinics.

But the one that
really hooked me

was when he showed us
press clippings of police

that they had sent to prison

for beating up
Mexican-American kids.

And I thought, any organization
that can do that,

I want to belong
to that organization.

I think that my mom experienced

enough of that injustice
or discrimination to where

she just could not keep it down.

She could not keep quiet.

In 1959, I became
the political director

for the Community Service
Organization,

and helped draft
a lot of the legislation

that we ultimately got approved
in Sacramento.

I was only 25 at this time,
or 26 years old.

I was very young.

There were
very, very few Latinos-

and I'm talking about men...

In the legislature in California
in the '50s and '60s.

It was all white men,

and here you have someone

like Dolores Huerta,
that was just...

People just didn't do that
in those days.

We had one piece of legislation
to take away the requirement

that you had to be
a U.S. citizen

to get public assistance.

I took parents whose kids
had served in World War II

to this one senator who was key
for us to get that legislation,

sat them in his office

with the pictures of their kids
in uniform.

They couldn't speak English,

Senator Kolbe couldn't speak
Spanish, but I told them,

"Just stay here
until he says yes,

that he'll vote on that bill."

What kind of a lobbyist is she?

Oh, she's a great lobbyist.

She's indefatigable.

She's unorthodox.

You know, Dolores will bring in
hundreds of people

and they'll camp
outside your office.

So when Dolores
is in Sacramento,

everybody knows
she's in Sacramento.

Fred Ross was
always talking about

this great organizer,
Cesar Chavez,

so Fred introduced us.

Cesar was very shy.

I remember one time

that he was sitting down
by himself at a table

and so I rushed over
and sat down

and started trying
to talk to him

and he immediately got up
and walked away.

Fred would always tell
Cesar how he met this woman,

she's dynamite, great organizer.

He was a little bit jealous

when Fred would talk to him
about her.

He was a little bit jealous
about that.

I gave my report
on the legislative work

that we were doing
up in Sacramento.

He and Fred Ross came over
and invited me

to have lunch with them

so I was very thrilled,
because I thought,

"Oh my, Cesar's finally paying
attention to what I'm doing."

They were having a meeting and
they needed a Chicano legislator

to do some things and he was
arguing why it couldn't be done.

And it was when my mother
began telling him

all the reasons why he needed
to get done

that Cesar took a step back
and he goes,

"Now I see what Fred
was talking about."

All this work
that we were doing,

Cesar organizing the farmworkers
in Oxnard,

my organizing farmworkers
in Stockton,

was under the auspices of the
Community Service Organization.

But when it came time then
to make it a union,

the CS0 decided
not to support us.

That's when Cesar called me
to come over to his house

and he said,
"We have to organize a union."

He put it this way, he said,
"Unless you and I do it,

it's never going to happen."

And then he said
in the next breath,

"But we will not see
a national union in our lifetime

"because the growers are
too rich, they're too powerful,

and they're too racist."

One of the really
tragic contradictions

about the United States
of America is that

it has presented itself
before the world

as a beacon of independence
and liberty and human rights.

Of course,

the real stain on this mythology
is slavery

and with it, the potential
for the enslavement of others.

This was a very real threat
for all Mexicans

living in California.

After 1848,

it was a continuing threat
for all of the immigrants

that came from China, Japan,
the Philippines, Vietnam.

Racism has been endemic
to American history.

The feudal wage slavery
of agribusiness

is really just an extension
of the attitude

that had persisted
in the country

and the irony is that none of us
can live without food.

None of us can live without
what's produced in our fields.

This is life,

and yet these are the worst-paid
workers on the planet.

When we came
here to this little, tiny town

in California called Delano,

I started working in the fields
when I was 15 years old

and they were paying
90 cents per hour.

There was no cold drinking water

and the weather gets to be
about 115 degrees.

If you complained
about any of these conditions,

you were told
to get the hell out.

There were plenty
of other people

that could come
and take your place.

And the women
were treated worse than the men.

You had no protection.

There was a lot of mistreatment

and a lot of rape,
there was a lot of...

I mean there's a lot
of that went on.

My grandfather
was living on a vineyard

in a house that was owned
by the people who employed him.

It was sort of this sense
of slavery, right?

You couldn't do anything wrong
against your employer,

because if you did, were they
going to kick out your family?

Where were you going to go?

You don't speak the language.

You're not even a citizen
of the country yet.

They used to say

that they wanted
to hire Mexicans

because we were built
closer to the ground,

and that, in my opinion,
was the worst part:

The humiliation of knowing that
people held you in contempt.

After I had seen the
miserable conditions of farmworkers

and knowing
how to organize people,

having achieved these incredible
successes on legislation,

I just felt that
that's what I needed to do.

It was just such a calling.

I felt it so strongly that
in spite of all of the negatives

that you might think,
"You can't do that.

"You've got seven kids.

You're going through
the middle of a divorce."

Many people thought I was making
a very foolish decision.

LORI de LEON:
My uncles, my aunts,

our family didn't understand
why my mother

would give up everything

to work with farmworkers
who have nothing.

I did pray that if I
was doing the wrong thing,

I wanted a sign that I was doing
the wrong thing.

Making this huge, huge decision
to leave my home in Stockton,

to come to Delano,
not knowing where my next meal

was going to be coming from.

I was worried about how my kids
would be able to take the move

because they left
all their friends behind

and we had
a very comfortable home.

I left a couple of my younger
children behind.

I knew that I was doing
something that I wanted to do.

They had no choice.

The last thing that I did
before I went to Delano,

I went to the
Monterey Jazz Festival.

I always loved jazz music,

and that was one of
the big sacrifices that I made

when I went to Delano
because after that,

I didn't hear any music for...
for years.

LORI de LEON:
It was very, very sad.

We went from a home

where we were surrounded
by family,

to Delano,

first and foremost because

we didn't have our mother
at that point.

She was off and running.

We soon recognized
that my mother

really didn't belong to us.

The reason for the existence
of the union

is to try to get power
for the powerless.

The farmworkers
don't have any power

to solve any of their own
economic and social problems.

You know, they're faced by
not only economic discrimination

and social,
but also racial discrimination.

This is true
of the Mexican farmworkers.

It is of the black farmworker,
the Arabian,

and sometimes even
the poor white farmworker.

Cesar, what
made you pick Dolores,

a woman, to help you form
the United Farm Workers?

We had worked before together,

and she believed as I did

that this job could be done,

the workers could be organized.

She had the faith and the drive
and the enthusiasm.

So those are
some of the reasons.

The... the skills,
a lot of knowledge,

and a lot of just willingness
to sacrifice.

We divided the
San Joaquin Valley.

Cesar took the southern half,
I took the northern half,

and we did house meetings
in all the different counties.

So we had all of these
committees that we organized.

We had a thousand members
and we had benefits.

We had a life insurance plan.

We had an office,
we started a credit union,

the first farmworker
credit union in the history

of the United States of America,
where people could get loans.

We had a cooperative store.

We did services,
we did immigration work,

we did their income taxes.

We had a five-year plan
to have a national strike

in the Central Valley

because we wanted all of the
growers to negotiate together,

but what disrupted that plan

was when the Filipino workers
went out on strike.

Because there was so much
violence against the Filipinos.

They locked them in their
bunkhouses in the labor camps,

they turned off the light, gas,
and the water.

Some of them were beaten up.

And so when these stories
came back to us,

well, we thought we don't have
any option.

So we joined forces
on the strike

to support the Filipino workers.

♪ This land is your land ♪

♪ This land is my land ♪

♪ From California ♪

♪ To the New York island ♪

♪ From the redwood forest ♪

♪ To the Gulf Stream waters ♪

♪ I tell you ♪

♪ This land was made
for you and me ♪

♪ As I went walking ♪

;Huelga, huelga!

That was an amazing thing

for me, as a young Chicano,

to suddenly come upon two people
in the field

that were actually working
on a social problem

that had affected my whole life.

I saw them up close
and I had no problem

believing that
I had to follow them.

I had to become a follower.

♪ Solidarity forever... ♪

I was not an easy follower.

I was pretty independent,

but here suddenly is Cesar

and here is Dolores.

And I devoted all of my
energies, all of my waking hours

to follow them into the cause.

I too have the dream that
I learned from Dolores Huerta

that farmworkers
can share in the wealth

that they help to produce.

She has such a firm belief

in what she's doing

that she infects you with it.

Dolores Huerta.

Muchas gracias,
compafieros y compafieras.

Then I think
she looks deep within you

and she understands
what you're capable of,

that you actually can do more

than what you thought
was possible.

When we started
to organize farmworkers,

people would say to us,
"They're poor,

"they don't speak English,
they're not citizens.

How are you going
to possibly organize them?"

And of course the response
that we had to that is,

"The power is in your body."

;Viva la cause!

;Viva la huelgal.

One of the things that was
very helpful in the beginning

was that Dolores being out there

made it all right for women
to be in the picket line

and so it made it all right
for the husbands

to permit their wives
to be in the picket line,

and their daughters,
and their mothers and so forth.

We found that
it's a tremendous advantage

to give women
equal participation in the union

because, well, they're
tremendous resources there

and they should be used.

We had women
who ran the clinics.

We had women as field directors.

Women did a lot
of the clerical work.

I remember hearing people
say to Cesar,

"Why do you have so many women?"

and he'd say,
"Because they do the work."

Whether it be Dolores Huerta,

Jessica Govea,

or Helen Chavez,

there were more women
involved in the UFW

than probably every other

labor union in the United States
combined.

The one place
where we were lacking

was on the executive board

and for many, many years, I was
the only woman on the board.

Cesar, you represent a culture

that says the woman must be
protected at all costs,

yet you take Dolores
right out in the picket line,

into a demonstration.

Do you ever worry
about her life?

We worry, sure.

There are some situations
that are very dangerous,

but she's a leader of the union

and those are the risks
that have to be taken.

These were not small farmers.

This was agribusiness,

and the growers were tied
into local government

and have control
of local sheriffs.

So when we would go
on a picket line,

the sheriffs would not hesitate
to beat somebody.

The contractors or the foremen
or some of the tractor workers

wouldn't hesitate
to run over a striker.

I know of no grower
in the Delano area

who has refused
or who would refuse

to sit down and to talk
with the workers on his farm.

But not with the
union organization.

But they do not feel that
the organizer and the agitators

represent their workers.

We had been on strike
since September of 1965,

and at the beginning,

we had a lot of people
that brought donations,

contributions
to keep the strike going,

but as the months went on,
it was tapering off.

So we knew we had to do
something different

and that's when we came up
with the idea

of doing the march
to Sacramento.

The strikers
and their supporters

is beyond question

the largest and the most
significant gathering

on behalf of the farmworkers
in California history.

Along the march she
negotiated the Schenley contract,

which was the first contract
in history

between farmworkers
and the growers.

Labor history has been made here
in California today,

an agreement between

the National Farm Workers
Association

and the Schenley Industries
Corporation.

Dolores Huerta negotiated

my grandfather's
first union contract,

and it was because of Dolores's
work that my grandpa was able

to get water in the workplace.
Drinking water, toilets.

LORI de LEON:
And her being a young Chicana,

sitting at the table
facing the growers

with farmworkers who were
primarily just Spanish-speaking,

some of them illiterate,

stayed with me throughout
my life how individuals,

whether they can read, write,
or speak English or not,

have individual power.

If the rules
to settle our economic problems

are not forthcoming,

we will take economic pressures,

strike, boycott,

to force recognition and obtain
collective bargaining rights.

The social and economic
revolution of the farmworkers

is well underway,

and it will not be stopped
until we receive equality.

If Dolores
Huerta and Cesar Chavez

felt it was possible

to organize farmworkers

when no one believed
that that was possible,

it was because

many of us during that period

were totally convinced
that we could change the world.

We were persuaded

that revolutionary change
was possible.

♪ Uh, with your bad self ♪

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud! ♪

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud! ♪

♪ Some people say
we got a lot of malice ♪

♪ Some say it's a lot of nerve ♪

♪ But I say we won't quit moving
until we get what we deserve ♪

This was in the '60s.

The civil rights movement
was going on,

the peace movement was going on,

the feminist movement
was just starting,

and the environmental movement
was just starting,

and so you had this ambience
all around you

that you could really
change the world.

There was a lot
of electricity in the air.

I mean, it was new.
People were like free.

♪ Say it loud ♪

♪ I'm black and I'm proud ♪

It was electric, especially
when you walked past the fields

and there was a lot of people
in the fields still working

"and people were marching
and say, "Vengan hermanos.

Come on, come on,
Vengan, sélganse."

Unanse con HOSOUOS.

And people would actually
come out of the fields.

♪ Now we demand a chance ♪

♪ To do things for ourselves ♪

It became really
apparent that the racism

that touches black people
is no different

than the racism that touches
the other groups,

and so we were really marching
for everybody.

We were marching
for social change.

Oftentimes today looking back,

we think about discrete
and distinct movements.

We think that the black movement
was one movement,

and then the Chicano movement
was over here,

and then there was
the Native American movement.

But all of those movements,

and the individuals
within those movements,

were connected,
and we knew that one movement

would not be successful
without the other.

Today we talk about the
intersectionality of struggles,

but I think during that period
we actually lived it.

We experienced it.

If you remain truly nonviolent,

and I'm pledging my support...

We come today
to lend our moral support,

our fiscal support,

and our financial support

to the efforts of Cesar Chavez.

There was a
lot of passion in all of us

for what we were doing.

I mean, we were making
five dollars a week

in terms of salary, right?

That was more than just the
union not having the resources.

It didn't.

It was also because there was
no way you could pay people

to work seven days a week.

You know,
it had to come from your heart.

I remember
Dolores calling and saying,

"Well, why don't you
come work for us?"

I said, "Well, how much
does it pay?"

"Five dollars a week
and all you can eat."

I said, "I don't think my father
will appreciate that"

"having helped me get through
law school

and going back
to where they left."

And of course, I said yes.

And my father was angry because
he thought it was regressive.

In reality,
it was a most trans...

(voice breaking}: Formative
period in my life.

We wish to welcome you
to Delano.

You know, and I don't
have to tell you this,

how thankful we are for the
gifts that you have brought us.

You also know that the gifts
of food and clothing

are the things that will keep us
alive for the next few months.

Dolores, if someone just came in

and put $5,000 in your lap

and said, "I want you to spend
this totally on yourself",

Dolores, nobody else,"
what would you do with it?

Well, I would...

I'd turn around
and contribute it to the union.

That's what I would do.

No fair.

Because that would be spending
it on myself,

because to me,
this is my life's work.

To me, you know,
this is the reason I live.

But don't you ever have
the average woman's dream

of going out to some spa,
and being relaxed,

and having a new hairdo,
and buying a great dress,

and having a big party?

Well, to me, having a hairdo
and being in a spa

would be a terrible
waste of time.

My uncle,
Cesar Chavez, and my mother

were both greatly influenced
by the philosophies of Gandhi.

You can't help people
unless you live like them.

So, we're not going to be able
to help organize farmworkers

unless we live
like the farmworkers.

My mother and Cesar
ingrained themselves in the community

and they lived
in those communities.

They didn't fly in
from Washington or San Francisco

or L.A. to say, "We know it all
and we're going"

to teach you guys
how to build a union."

They said, "We need to build
an association"

that addresses the day-to-day
needs of folks.

I only knew growing up

that when we were poor,
because we were,

my mom would always tell us,
"You're poor by choice."

We have a tendency to want to be
too comfortable, you know.

And I'm trying to educate
my children

in the way that I'm raising them

to give their lives
to work for other people.

And I'm hoping that
out of the 11 that I've got,

I sure ought to come out
with a pretty good percentage.

We didn't get it at the time,

the lessons that she was trying
to teach us and, in fact,

we were like most teenagers,

rebellious and angry

about her ideas of materialism.

Our biggest dream was just to be
like the kids at school

who had all the latest fashions,

but we didn't get
any of that stuff.

So we knew we were outside
of the norm for sure.

Why are you here today?

Because I don't like the people
that are here in our town,

they don't belong here,

and I wish they'd all go back
to where they came from.

Now, which people are these
you're talking about?

I'm talking about the outsiders
that have come into this strike

and have interfered
with our daily workers.

Our workers are loyal workers
and they work out in the fields

and yet they are harassed.

They're insulted.

We've had no trouble.

Well, now, are you unhappy
at the labor troubles?

We had no labor troubles!

Senator Kennedy
actively gave his backing

to the unionization campaign.

I think people are frustrated,

and I think they're terribly
disturbed by the fact

that they haven't had
more success,

and that the federal government
in Washington

has not been helpful to them,

and that the state
has not been helpful to them.

I remember my grandpa
telling me how important it was

to the Latino community here
in California

that Robert Kennedy came in
and stood with them

when the sheriff
and police department

were actually arresting these
people for doing lawful things.

If I have reason to believe

that there's going to be
a riot started

and somebody tells me
that there's going to be trouble

if you don't stop them,
then it's my duty to stop them.

Then you go out and arrest them?

Absolutely.

How can you go arrest somebody

if they haven't
violated the law?

They're ready
to violate the law.

In other words...

Could I suggest in the interim
period of time,

in the luncheon period of time,

that the sheriff
and the district attorney

read the Constitution
of the United States?

To see this Harvard-educated guy

from Massachusetts
talk in a funny accent,

stand with us,
it meant something.

You can't imagine a
political figure of that station

these days going after
corporations with that vigor.

For who?

Not for his own.

Not even on his coast.

Wow, right?

We have somebody
of national prominence

who knows who we are,

and who's running for president
and has a chance to win.

We all went and worked on his
campaign throughout the state.

The farmworkers pioneered

a voter outreach strategy
to Latino voters

that had never been done before
anywhere in the United States.

Labor's idea of mobilizing
for an election

was to write a check
to the local Democrat.

It was the farmworker folks
in California

who were knocking on doors,
persuading them to vote,

registering them at the door,

all the things
Democrats nationally

are dependent on today.

There were hundreds of us.

Every door we knocked on,
we knew we were going to win.

You could just taste victory.

We came back for the party
and we had the TV set up

and, you know, I could see my
mother on the television screen

next to Kennedy and him
acknowledging the farmworkers.

For them and all of those
Mexican-Americans

who were such supporters
of mine.

And Dolores Huerta,
who is an old friend of mine,

and who is working
with the union,

to thank her and tell her
how much I appreciate

her coming tonight.

We have certain obligations
and responsibilities

to our fellow citizens,
which we talked about

during the course
of this campaign.

And I want to make it clear

that if I'm elected president
of the United States,

with your help,
I intend to keep them.

Now it's on to Chicago,
and let's win there.

Thank you very much.

I had never before
experienced the death of the future.

The death of the past, yes,

but when the future dies,
it's different.

All this hope,

the one person
that would actually

stand up for us is gone.

Some people became very cynical
after Robert Kennedy was killed,

but we had to continue
to keep on working for justice

and nonviolence because

that's what Robert Kennedy
would have wanted us to do.

Dolores was the
closest one to Senator Kennedy,

and having been witness to
something as terrifying as that

made her understanding of
nonviolence even more important,

because she saw firsthand the
impact that violence can have.

Hatred and racism
are extensions of violence,

and if we become that which
we are trying to end,

then you know, we are becoming
like the oppressor then,

and we're trying to set up
a different system.

To talk about grapes and lettuce

produced in poverty
and suffering

felt like the first step.

An additional step was
to talk about grapes and lettuce

produced in poisons.

And 90,000 people
were poisoned last year.

A thousand people
were killed last year.

And then people say,
"Where at? In Vietnam?"

And I say, "No, in the fields of
the United States of America."

The pesticides that
were sprayed in those fields,

we never knew what it was

and there were so many times

we wound up
stumbling out of the fields

because our eyes were watering,
our skin was irritated.

You could just see the splotches
on your skin.

It's toxic.

It's poisonous and people die.

Earlimart, McFarland, Delano,
all those areas

have been affected by the use
of pesticides since World War II

and they become cancer clusters,

little kids born with limbs
that are misshapen.

They don't have them, you know?

This is the unspeakable stuff
that the United Farm Workers

tried to fight against.

The farmworkers
were a living daily reminder

and warning system

of what everyone
was going to experience.

What appeal would
you make to a consumer,

you know, a mother who's
concerned about her children?

This is
definitely a flag to them

to say there's something wrong

with the poisons that are on our
food that they eat every day.

Well, we have the many cases,
many affidavits of cases

where workers have been poisoned
by pesticides,

where they have
serious illnesses

and also there's, of course,
many reports of deaths

that have been caused
by pesticides.

But isn't that just
sort of an occupational hazard?

Is there anything
that can be done about it?

Well, we believe that something
can be done about this

but, of course,
in order to do this

we have to have the cooperation
of the employers.

In the 19605, labor
was seen as anti-environmental.

Well, here's the farmworkers
in the vanguard.

They won.

They got DDT banned.

They founded the whole idea
of environmental justice.

Older environmental groups

often were concerned
with the redwoods,

they were concerned
with the trees, not the people.

It was Dolores, among others,
who made this linkage

by making people
look at the human cost.

The environmental
justice movement

said that certain
environmental hazards

are disproportionately impacted
on people of color.

That would never be allowed
if these people

were white middle class.

So it wasn't simply
stopping DDT,

but it was also making
the larger point

you're only allowing this
because of who the workers are

and their racial and class
background.

The farmworker movement in
many ways was a cultural revolution

because when people saw the
farmworkers come out on strike

and go on those marches,

I think that it really
said to people

if the farmworkers can do this,
so can we.

It gave our Latino people a
certain pride in who they were.

We are Indio, Mestigo,
Hispano, Mexicano.

The names have all been changed
across the centuries,

but they all mean
the same thing.

We have been Americanos
longer than America has existed.

We are Aztlén!

♪ Oye coma va ♪

♪ Mi ritmo ♪

♪ Bueno pa gozar' ♪

♪ Mulata' ♪

First time I
opened up Time magazine,

a little picture of a march

and all the people out there
looked like me.

That first impact was huge.

So, the farmworker movement
was a catalyst

and ignited a personal and
community-wide self-evaluation

of who we were as a people.

Yeah, I can
remember seeing those marches,

and it was kind of amazing
for a brown boy

to see a bunch of brown people
in the United States

marching in simultaneity
about something.

As a Latino kid, the pressure
to assimilate was great.

Seeing women like Dolores Huerta
out there

gave me an example
as a young brown kid

to be able to engage in a way

that's not white,
that was actually particular

to us as brown people
in this country.

Even though I grew up

in such this strong
Chicano movement,

the television
and all of the media messages

told me everything the opposite,

that brown was ugly,
being poor was bad.

She knew that we were
going to be experiencing persecution

based on the color of our skin

and so she was constantly
telling us

how beautiful our dark skin was.

In high school,
I started talking about,

"I want a nose job
for graduation.

That's what I want
my graduation present to be,"

as if we could afford that,
but that was my thing.

I wanted a nose job.

She was like, "Over my dead body"

"will you ever reconstruct
that beautiful nose

"that God and your ancestors,

"your Tarahumara tribe
has given you.

You will not touch that nose
ever."

Revolution starts

with self-love in the sense

that if you're a member
of an oppressed people,

an oppressed class, you have
to develop self-respect,

and that starts by developing
some affection for who you are.

You love your family
and you say,

"Okay, but why does the world
regard them as inferior?

"Why does the world regard them
as ugly when, in my eyes,

they're quite beautiful?"

Movements not only affect laws,

they also affect
the way people feel.

They affect emotions.

Well, then, is
this more a social movement?

It's both.
You can't separate it.

It's both a labor movement
and a social movement

or you can say it another way.

I think all of
the labor movement

has also been a social movement.

This might sound kind of corny,

but you have to really
love people, you know,

to want to teach them,

to want to have them grow.

Because you're giving a lot of
yourself when you're doing that.

It's not just filling out the
form and filling out the paper.

When a farmworker comes in
with this problem,

and then you're going to start
telling him

the history of his abuse
and start getting him angry,

that's going to take something
out of you right there,

you know?

She was so
dedicated to the work,

like a workaholic,
that she felt guilty

taking time
to enjoy life herself.

So going to a jazz concert,
music, dance,

which was her passion,

she felt very guilty
about doing those things

and she said that
it was my dad, Richard,

who actually helped her

look at life
a little bit differently.

Richard was very good
to the kids in the family.

He had a very loving nature.

Of course, I wouldn't say
Richard was a feminist,

but Richard was a great cook.

We consider you part of us,
and us part of you.

You brought Dolores
along to organize the union

and to be a business partner

and now she's living with
your brother, so it's family.

Were you expecting that?

No, I certainly wasn't.

No.

Life is all an accident,
you know?

Sometimes those things
can't be foreseen.

When my mother and my
father, Richard Chavez, got together,

my father was still married
to another woman.

And, of course,

this is my version
that I like to believe

to make myself feel better
as a love child.

I've been called a bastard
by some,

but I believe that my father
was in an unhappy marriage.

At some point, my father
couldn't be there anymore.

He met the love of his life.

I don't know what happened.

I wasn't there.

I was just conceived.

And of course, I didn't start
learning this stuff

until we were older,
but there was always kind of

a negative feeling
against my mom.

What particularly
about Dolores upsets people?

Well, it's her personal life,

all the children
without marriage,

and just one every year or so
is not accepted,

and I think most of us
feel the same way.

She did put up
with a lot of ridicule from people

who wanted to see her
in a more traditional role,

by the men who were threatened
by her power

and her assertiveness.

She cries, you know,
she rolls down the tears,

you know,
and I'm all for the Chicano

and all that
and like it's a joke.

Like everybody knows
that the UFW,

that's why they keep her
in Sacramento,

and that's why they keep her
in Washington,

keep them out of their hair,

because she just likes to talk
a hell of a lot.

While you guys are trying
to stop the money,

we have to keep a lot going.

How do you answer
the criticism of detractors

who say that you have been
married and divorced twice,

that you have 11 children
sprinkled over two marriages,

and one relationship
with Richard Chavez,

to whom you're not married?

I guess there's not much
of an answer I can give to that.

You know, I could probably say,
"Well, maybe I shouldn't

have had the children,"
but I don't believe that.

I think that a relationship
should bear children.

Now, the thing is,
who maintains these kids?

Who takes care of them?

Who supports them if she's out
on these adventures?

We were told...
Remember in the beginning,

one of the criticisms was that,

"You don't know what
you're doing to your families.

"When they grow up,
they're going to disown you

"and they'll really hate you
because you're not giving them

the things that ordinary
children would like to have."

Do you think the
children ever resent you

because you're always so busy
with the organization?

Oh definitely, they wouldn't be
human if they didn't.

Of course, that lends
for a lot of friction,

which, you know,
we always have to work out.

The hardest thing for my
children has been the absences.

LORI de LEON:
She was always gone.

It wasn't a 9-to-5 job.

She was, you know,
gone before we got up.

We'd have to get ourselves ready
to go to school

and try to find something
to eat.

A lot of my mom's absences
had some positives and negatives.

I dropped out of high school
and my mom didn't find out

until ten months later,
you know, so.

We were spending the night
in people's homes

that we didn't know.

We were going to labor camps
and not knowing if somebody

was going to shoot at us,
as they did many times.

It was very hard,
I'll be honest with you.

Tough.

LORI de LEON: The movement
became her most important child.

I realize the importance
of the work,

but I was also
very jealous of it.

So... there's scars there.

You know, there's scars there
because of that.

When she was
around, we were just like

soaking in as much
as we could of her

because we just knew
she was going to be gone again.

It was really difficult.

It was really difficult
not to have my mom around,

especially when you would see
your friends

and how involved
their mothers were.

There's something about
a mother's love, you know,

and attention.

So it was hard.

There were a lot of very
difficult nights...

and months.

I lived
with a woman in Bakersfield

for a few years
while my mom went to New York,

but when my mom
came back for me,

I didn't want to go with her

because I liked my new home.

There was stability.

I had meals every time
I was supposed to have a meal.

I mean eventually,
I did go back with her,

but I remember crying
and feeling like,

"This was my new home,"
you know.

And then getting older and being
like, "Why was I left there?"

Obviously, that has an impact
on a child's psyche.

You know, but as I look back
at it, I'm like I understand it.

I fully understand it.

You know, it's like I know
there's brothers and sisters

that have the same experiences,
but maybe they weren't so lucky

to be placed in a loving home.

You know, but that's part
of the sacrifice...

That we
made and that we had to make.

And we've all learned
that we're not afraid to struggle,

we're not afraid to sacrifice,

because you can't make change
if you're not willing

to give something up.

You've got to give up
some comfort.

You've got to give up some time,

and then we can see
the changes come.

Not every woman is going
to take the kind of risks

that I took with my children,

you know,
what they had to go through,

and I wouldn't really
want to wish it on any child

or on any other woman.

What I did in terms
of sacrificing my children,

I know it was very painful
for them,

and it still pains me
when I think about it.

And yet, I
also feel very, very strongly

that she felt she was giving
them so much more

than what she was asking them
to sacrifice.

She was giving them
meaningful lives,

which is something that is
very, very rare in this society.

You've got
to have some kind of faith,

you know, if you're going to be
walking away from your kids

like that, you know, and leaving
your families like that.

You've got to believe

in something bigger than you,
you know?

Grape-picking may
be a California problem,

but the United Farm Workers
are determined

to let New Yorkers
know about it.

♪ Bang bang ♪

♪ Bang bang ♪

♪ Bang bang ♪

In the strike, we
were not able to succeed

because the growers
refused to negotiate.

They could just bring in
strike breakers continuously.

So we really had to think about
what other options we had

and it was actually an attorney
from San Francisco

and he said to us,

"Have you ever thought
of trying to boycott?"

We had boycott committees

in Detroit, and Chicago,
and New York City,

and San Francisco,
and then in other cities

throughout the country,
including Canada and Europe.

I was in charge
of the New York boycott,

and I remember speaking
at Madison Square Garden

and they told me I had
60 seconds to deliver my message

and my message was,
"farmworkers are on strike.

"Don't buy grapes.

Don't shop at stores
that have grapes."

That was it.

What first comes
to mind is what Dolores modeled,

which was to go out
and meet new people,

and make those connections
about this struggle for justice.

The first support
that we got was from

the African-American community,
the Puerto Rican community.

We did not have to go
into Harlem

to get them
to take the grapes out.

They did it on their own.

The same thing in the Bronx

with the Puerto Rican
brothers and sisters.

They said,
"You want to get the grapes out?

We'll get them out,"
and they did.

But it was the farmworkers
themselves that went out there

and told their stories,

getting people involved
to volunteer

to get those stores
to take the grapes out.

I am not ashamed
because I am poor.

I am proud
because I am a farmworker.

All of the farmworkers grew.

They learned to be
public speakers.

Whereas they had been treated

as dirt in the outside society,

suddenly they were being given
a podium to tell their story

and regain their own sense
of worth in that process.

I didn't really
know Dolores before New York,

but I think I was scared of her.

I don't think that Dolores
thought I was worth the trouble

until I got Huntington Hartford
to picket the A&P,

which of course got press

because the heir
to the A&P fortune

was boycotting the A&P.

After that, we became partners.

My mother was raised
a Catholic and very traditional,

and prior to going
to New York City,

she really didn't speak
of feminism.

I was in New York

when the feminist movement
was being born,

but my mind was focused
on getting all of those women

at those conventions to support
the farmworkers.

There was a time
when rarely could you discover

women of color
who would identify as feminists

because it was assumed to be
a question simply of gender

and if it was a question
simply of gender,

that gender was white.

When social justice movements
arise in a patriarchal system,

all kinds of false divisions
are made,

and then there was
the additional problem

in a lot of the Hispanic
community of Catholicism,

which is especially oppressive
to women.

I think that the feminist
movement is extremely important.

I don't, of course,
agree with the idea of abortion

because I do know from having 11
children that a fetus is live,

you know?

I think perhaps
in the beginning,

she didn't quite see
that those of us

who were supporting safe
and legal abortion

are supporting the choice to
have a child just as fiercely,

that we were advocating
the right of a woman

to decide the fate
of her own physical self.

That was difficult
for me at the beginning,

but then it made me realize that
a woman really cannot decide

what she wants to do
with her life

unless she has the right
to decide

how many children
she wants to have.

It took us all a while

to get over our divisions,

but we came to realize that
if we had the same adversaries,

we had a lot in common
and needed to organize together.

I was out there fighting
for the Mexican-American movement,

but I was not focused

on the rights
of Mexican-American women.

I think that was the big shift
that I had.

I hope you don't mind
if I give a minute of that time

first to Dolores Huerta
from the Farm Workers.

Down with grapes!

IAbajo!

Down with Gallo wine!

IAbajo!

Down with violence!

IAbajo!

Down with racism!

IAbajo!

Down with sexism!

IAbajo!

Si, se puede, si, se puede,
everybody.

I know that she set me on
fire in terms of racial injustice.

I would not have been able
to see what's hidden

in the fields of our country
without Dolores.

We've picketed all of the firms

that were carrying
scab grapes today,

and we've gotten commitments
from several of the people

out here that they won't handle
scab grapes anymore.

There is no strike
in the vineyards.

The Chavez group, representing
at best a tiny minority,

are seeking to force,
by what amounts to blackmail,

the growers to recognize their
group as the bargaining agent.

I think that the
growers could not envision

their serfs

standing up for themselves
and demanding fair treatment.

And they just couldn't
come to grips with that.

You had the most
exploited workers in this country

rising up and pushing back

and pushing back
in a very effective way,

building coalitions.

Cesar, Dolores, los demés,
they looked like the people

that they were representing.

I think that scared
the hell out of them.

If they should succeed
with this illegal

and this immoral maneuver,

they then move through
the agricultural community

of California.

The administration was buying
even more grapes

to send, ironically,
to the soldiers in Vietnam

by the thousands of pounds.

I mean it was total
government interference.

So this was very clearly
not only a battle

against the growers.

It was a battle
against the government

and their support of the growers

who had helped to put them
in office.

It was political
from the beginning.

I'm against the grape boycott
and I stand firmly against it.

I think Dolores
and the leadership,

they knew what they
were up against.

What the union did

is they made it
a national issue,

and once the moral imperative
became part of the issue,

then whatever power they have,
you've got to crack it.

At the height of the boycott,

there were around
17 million people

who had stopped eating grapes,

and it was
a pretty incredible feeling

to know that people
were receptive to it.

That's what the
grape boycott was.

It was a mass coalition
of people that came together

and helped the poorest people
in the land

bring the most powerful people
in the state of California

to the negotiations table.

Why did you sign with the union?

Why did you negotiate
the contract?

Well, it was the effects
of the boycott.

There it is, the
union stamp, the eagle,

the symbol of the
United Farm Workers,

and now the symbol of victory.

After ten years of struggling,
these now are union vineyards.

My mother had
negotiated an agreement

with the Schenley Corporation
a few years before,

but having reached an agreement
with an entire industry

went beyond people's
initial expectations.

The dream of a union
was now reality.

For the first time, we
began to understand that we were,

in fact, the architects
of our own destiny.

The grape boycott, above all,

shows strategy does
make a difference.

You can have a big heart,
try your best, work 24/7.

If you don't have the right
strategies and tactics,

you're not going to succeed.

Organizing,
it does make a difference.

Under the new contracts,
the wages increase each year.

There are paid vacations
and other fringe benefits.

The most important is insurance
and a good medical plan.

All of that was barely
dreamed of a few years ago

by most of the pickers.

LORI de LEON: After my
mother went to New York,

I think it solidified her
beliefs in the power of women.

I mean, she knew it,

but it just took it
to a whole different level.

And when she came back
to the union,

she stood up more for herself

with the executive board,
which were all men.

She wasn't so much asking
for permission to do things,

she just did what she felt
needed to be done.

And I think Cesar felt he lost
a little bit of control of her.

She realized
the knowledge and skillset

that she brought
to this partnership

so it became more challenging.

The relationship
between Cesar and my mother

was extremely complicated.

They were probably
the best of friends

and they had the most passionate
and heated arguments

that I've ever heard.

There's got to be
a time where the two of you

don't agree on something.

What do you do?

Well, we would fight
with each other.

We argue,
but it's always on the issue

and then that's never been
a personality thing.

LORI de LEON:
They were each other's peers.

She felt she had every right
to speak up and say her piece

and he didn't like that.

He would fire her and she'd say,
"I quit," but she'd be there,

the first one in the office
the next day,

and it would be
business as usual.

She and Cesar
were having a heated argument,

and Dolores walks out of the
room and in Spanish she says:

Growing up, we saw
so many people bowing down to him

and it was really hard
to see that she was a person

who was just real with him,

you know, like nobody else
would be.

My Tio Cesar was
surrounded by a lot of yes men

and she was not the yes man.

She was the chief negotiator.

She was the cool head
and hard as nails,

and people knew it,

and yet there was a group of men

that preferred to do things
without her.

I saw a lot of resistance
to her leadership,

putting obstacles or blocks,

and it clearly only was because
she was a woman.

I even said to Cesar
at one point in time, I said,

"Look, we have a lot of machismo
here in the farmworkers movement

and I am not going
to take it anymore."

One year when she
came out in a national magazine,

she criticized her own union
for being sexist.

And I remember,
she called me up and she said,

"Oh, shit's going
to hit the fan,"

because, you know, as soon
as it gets out and Cesar...

She said everybody was
pissed at her.

I thought that was incredibly
brave of her to do that.

Through her example, she
was able to get other women

to assume leadership roles
within the union.

Before Dolores, it was all men

and that was the expectation
that it was men's work.

The only reason
that we've been able

to eliminate our enemies
one by one...

Nixon, Reagan, the growers,
the labor contractors-

the reason that we're going
to win is because of the marches

and the strikes, the boycotts,
and the sacrifices of time

and our families,
you know, going to jail.

This is the reason
that we've been able to survive.

We had contracts,

not only in California.

We had contracts in Arizona, New
Mexico, and even parts of Texas.

LORI de LEON: Workers saw the benefits
of the contracts-the wage increase,

the safety regulations where
they couldn't spray pesticides

while the workers
were in the fields,

but the contracts
were only three-year contracts.

So in 1973, the growers signed
a sweetheart contract

with the Teamsters Union.

Well, are the Teamsters
Union easier for the farm growers

to deal with than you people?

Oh, much so, yes.

Yes, because they don't make
any demands on the employers.

See, the Teamsters Union
came into agriculture

to protect the growers
from the United Farm Workers.

So under the so-called
Teamster contracts,

the farmworkers don't really get
any protections.

LORI de LEON: So at that time,
workers went on strike.

At issue is the future

of the United Farm
Workers Union.

The opposition force

is the biggest and richest union
in the world.

The Teamsters have poured
both money and muscle

into the fight to represent
all California grape workers.

You're a lousy bunch
of commie bums!

He's not afraid.

You stink! You smell!

LORI de LEON: They had all
these injunctions against us.

So, there was a decision made
to go ahead and violate them.

Sheriff's deputies have
arrested the reported 1,700 farmworkers

on picket lines
in four counties.

The arrests have given
new impetus to the farmworkers

in this battle
the Teamsters have called

a fight to the finish.

LORI de LEON: After that
came all the violence.

My great-grandfather was
in the Civil War on the Union side.

My father was in the military.

My brother was in the military.

And I remember when I first read

the Constitution of the
United States in grammar school,

I always felt so proud
of being an American.

I thought, "God, we have
all these rights," you know.

In a democracy,
you make your demands

and then somebody
will listen to you.

Justice will prevail.

But I found out
that when you do this

in an economic situation,
it doesn't quite work like that.

Once we started making
those kind of demands,

we had the same response
that the black movement has had.

Our people were killed.

The system doesn't really want
brown people or black people

to have an organization
and to have any power.

I found out that no matter
what I did,

I could never be an American.

Never.

Big business and agribusiness,

and racist police departments,

or corrupt police departments,

whoever it is
that's taking part in that,

nobody's ever been convicted
for any of the murders

of any of the martyrs
of the United Farm Workers.

You know, think about that.

That animosity is visceral, and
it's hate, and it's racial hate.

You know, it's basically
the economics of racism.

They were willing to sign
contracts with the Teamsters,

pay a lot of money
as long as the workers

can be kept oppressed.

They will not accept workers
as their equals.

You've been fighting so long.

Do you ever get so tired
of fighting

you think you can't do it
another day?

Well, I haven't felt that way.

You have to have commitment.

It's got to be a total
commitment.

It's not something that you can
just come in and leave.

You've got to stay there
and keep working

in order to make a difference.

One has to understand
that Dolores does not waste time

in negativity.

Yes, what could we have done
better, et cetera,

but it's forward.

Do what has to be done and
move forward and move forward.

California
legislature passed a farm bill

it hopes will end violence
in the fields there.

Under the new
Agricultural Labor Relations law,

we'll be certified
as a bargaining representative

and the employers have a duty
to bargain with us.

Could you support Jimmy Carter?

At this point, no,
unless he can really prove

that he is willing to keep the
social contract with the people.

The reason that we've
lost ground is political.

It's because of the Agricultural
Labor Relations board.

Because of the appointments
that were made,

the growers refused to bargain.

If we file charges,
they're dismissed.

So there's no protections
out there for workers.

Farmworkers still toil at
the bottom of the economic ladder,

often exploited in ways
that are still shocking.

Immigrants were
discouraged from voting.

And so we have got to say
to them,

"Look, it's okay
for you to vote."

It's important and we want them
to participate

in the political process.

Work on the bill resumes today

with debate centered on
the controversial amendment

granting amnesty
to illegal aliens.

Since we do have a
special legalization program

for the farmworkers,

they will not be afraid then
to make complaints

if they know
that they won't get deported.

It's going to make a tremendous
amount of difference.

Some four million illegal
aliens are expected to seek amnesty.

We are ready to give those
people permanent residency.

But the growers don't
want them to be legalized

because once they're legalized,

they can protest
against pesticide poisoning.

They can protest the low wages
that they're being given.

George Bush spent the day
in California

talking about the economy
and the need for compassion.

Last night in San Francisco,

police moved in to break up
a protest outside a fund raiser

for the vice president.

I must say,
you have a peculiar breed

of demonstrators out there.

They're giving me grief there
and his hair was flying around

and, "No drilling! No drilling!"

I finally said,
"I don't want to do anything

that's going to hurt
the environment."

"What about contras?
What about contras?"

I'm glad to be inside.

My friends...
Yes, I do mean friends...

We know how to secure
a more just and prosperous life

for man on earth,
with free markets, free speech,

free elections,
and the exercise of free will

unhampered by the state.

America is never wholly herself
unless she is engaged

in high moral principle,

for democracy belongs to us all.

No one is quite sure
how things got out of hand

at the demonstration outside
the hotel where George Bush

was speaking last night.

This police footage
clearly shows.

UFW leader Dolores Huerta

trying to move as ordered
by police.

A crowd control officer
bashed her body with a police baton

and when we thought
that we lost her,

it was really scary
and really unexpected.

I was not ready to lose my mom
before turning 20 years old.

Tonight, Dolores
Huerta is recovering

from three broken ribs
and emergency surgery

that removed her spleen.

Huerta's son Emilio

is grateful to the hospital
she is alive.

Without their support,

she would not be alive today.

It was very hard
to see this powerful, strong,

beautiful, like intimidating
woman just be reduced,

you know, to just being
bedridden, you know.

If you could use one
adjective to describe Dolores,

it is dynamic.

So the hardest thing that could
happen to her is to be immobile.

She was lying in bed and looking
terrible, physically,

and I just felt terrible
and said,

"Dolores, what can I do
for you?"

And she just said,
"Boycott Safeway."

The only good thing
that I can think that came

out of that experience was that
it was forced family time.

And so we all got to have
as much of my mom

as we wanted around.

My kids were with me 24 hours.

They took turns, 24 hours.

I was sick
for many, many months.

They never left me alone,
not even one day.

And when you think about all the
times that I left them alone

with different people
taking care of them,

sometimes complete strangers,

and yet they were so kind
to take care of me.

It was interesting,
because all her children

got together to support her,

and that's when she realized

that family
was really important to her.

There was a reconciliation
on the part of the children too

with their mother.

That was sort of an awakening.

We felt that we needed to be
less critical of my mother

and her lifestyle,

and we needed to support
my mother more

in whatever role
that she decided to take on.

LORI de LEON: After that
incident in San Francisco,

you know, it took her a long
time to recover and come back.

And her absence made Cesar
more aware of her importance.

Her coming back
and being there 100%

reestablished his commitment
to her.

I remember when they
were working together,

she came home and she said, "You
know what Cesar told me today?"

"He thanked me for keeping him
honest all these years.

Those were his words."

She goes,
"I was taken aback by that."

That was so unusual of
Cesar because within a few moments

that we were together,

we would usually be picking
a fight with each other.

His whole behavior was so...
not like Cesar.

As long as there's one
ounce of strength in our bodies,

that ounce of strength
will be used

to fight for this good cause.

And in the end, we will win.

Cesar Chavez was found
dead yesterday in Arizona,

apparently of natural causes.

An estimated 25,000 people
turned out Thursday

in Delano, California,
for the funeral

of labor leader Cesar Chavez,

many of them farmworkers
Chavez helped to organize.

I know she
misses my Tio Cesar a lot.

He was a glue.

He was like a certain
binding agent, you know?

Like you miss the sun
on a cloudy day.

You know what I'm saying?

Who will fill his shoes or
what process will you go through?

The executive board of the union
will be meeting

and then they will decide
who the next president

of the union will be.

That is the process that we have
in our constitution.

Do you feel you could
fill his shoes if you had to?

Well, I think I worked
very many years with Cesar,

but I think it's up
to the executive board

to decide who they want,
you know.

It certainly was an expectation

on a number of people's part

that when Cesar died,
Dolores would take it over

since she had been in there
since the beginning.

You could imagine,

a farmworker's union
run by a woman?

That would have been history.

But she was not chosen.

She called me to
tell me after Cesar passed

that she was not going
to succeed Cesar as president

and I, like, got so upset.

And then she said to me
real calm, like super-calm,

but I could tell
there was hurt in her voice,

she said, "Barbara, it would be
one fight after another"

if I fought for this."

LORI de LEON:
The workers wanted her.

The volunteers wanted her.

The membership wanted her,

but it was not about her,

it was about
the union's survival.

And so, she advocated
for someone else,

Arturo Rodriguez
to become the president,

who remains the president
of the union to this day.

After that,
my mother started advocating

to go back to the original way
of community organizing,

but she was receiving a lot of
opposition from the leadership.

I think there were indications
that her input

was not as welcome
as one would have thought.

LORI de LEON:
It was very hard to see that

after all that my mother
had given,

all the years of her life,

putting the union
above all else,

you know,
including all her 11 children.

A lot of things
changed and I just felt that

maybe it was really time
for me to leave and I left.

I remember the convention

where she actually gave
her resignation.

It was a very emotional
experience

and I think very difficult
for her.

La compafiera, Dolores Huerta.

LORI de LEON: I remember my sisters and
I and my brother being on the stage

and surrounding my mother
for support.

It was almost
like when Cesar died, you know?

It was like a big part
of the farmworker thing dying.

Everybody there was like...
I don't know, in shock,

disbelief, you know.

G, Por qué, Dolores?

No te vayas.

No puedes.

Z, Qué vamos a hacer'?

I tell you, there wasn't
a dry eye in the house.

Dolores Huerta!

Dolores Huerta!

Dolores Huerta!

I can't imagine
what she went through

resigning from the union.

There had to have been some
grieving, but knowing Dolores,

there also had to have been some
si, se puede moments also,

"I'm going to do something
significant despite this."

Then she got
a Puffin/Nation award,

which was $100,000 to do

whatever she wanted
to do with it.

There were no strings attached
at all.

She could have kept that money

to have a comfortable life
for herself,

but Dolores has never been
interested

in a comfortable life
for herself.

After I'm feeling bad
about having to leave the union,

I thought to myself,

I'm going to use that money

to start doing
community organizing.

That is when Dolores
announces that she is founding

the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

We're going to start out
with Organizing 101.

She is really
going to the grass roots,

into peoples' homes again,
the house meetings,

seeing what people's issues are,

helping to give them the support

so that they become vocal

and training the people
to become community organizers.

In the long term, I think
it afforded her a sense of freedom,

freedom to touch every issue:

Feminism,

the environment,

the politics of our people,
Latinos.

She made it all connect.

We're not going
to stop until we get

more legalization.

[Si, se puede!

535. 35, se puede!

35, se puede!

- Viva la mujer!
- Viva!

Viva la raza!

We can make the change,

but it's got to start with us.

And now in Tucson, Arizona,
800 students heard

labor activist Dolores Huerta
say this:

Dolores would
come to town regularly

to speak to our youth,

but the only thing that came
from that was that phrase,

"Republicans hate Latinos."

The blowback was pretty intense.

Dolores Huerta telling our kids
that Republicans hate Latinos.

I think that's hate speech.

The Texas State.

Board of Education
rejected that you

be part of the social studies
curriculum.

The reason people are
opposed to Dolores Huerta,

she has been quoted as saying
some other things

that are rather negative.

Horne says Huerta should not
be allowed to address

any public school assemblies
in Arizona.

He was testifying
on behalf of a bill

which would outlaw ethnic
studies in public schools.

Ethnic studies
were brought to my attention

when a lady named Dolores Huerta
gave a speech

at the Tucson High School.

She was a former girlfriend
of Cesar Chavez.

If we go full circle to
how politicians of the state

and then on Fox News would refer
to her as Cesar's sidekick or,

in the case of Home,
actually saying his girlfriend,

it was a perfect example
why we need ethnic studies

because we have people in power
at the policy level

that have no idea of
the true heroes of this country.

I gotta tell you, I never
heard of this woman before.

She's big in Arizona.
I don't know her.

I mean we're
knee-deep in sexism.

We're like downtown sexism city

when it comes to how powerful
she is, you know,

and why she isn't studied,

and why people don't know her.

It is absolutely important
to recognize the extent to which

Dolores was viewed
as a subsidiary figure

and Cesar Chavez,

I have all the respect and
reverence in the world for him,

but the assumption was
he was the leader

and Dolores was the housekeeper
of the movement.

If you look at
the books that were written,

you never see Dolores Huerta
referred to as cofounder.

She was there
at the very beginning.

She was there as a woman
representing

half of the working labor force
in the fields.

I think it is
absolutely essential

that people acknowledge

that it's male and female
working together.

We try to impress
upon her that it is important.

Latina girls do need to see
statues of you

and they do need to have you
in their history books.

Like we've really got to set
the record straight.

I mean women cannot be written
out of history.

It's about all the generations

of young Chicanas,
young women of color,

who are currently involved
in their own struggles

and need to be taught
by example.

We're never going to change

if folks keep their place
and stay quiet,

especially women,
especially Latinas.

So, my mother,
her story will be told

and it's our job
to make that happen.

Her opinion is changing now

but it's a constant struggle
for her.

We as women, we're so
used to being accommodators.

We want to try to please people.

We have to learn to think about
ourselves and what do they say?

As a woman, you're just thinking
about yourself,

then you are what?
Selfish, right?

If a woman is assertive,
they use the B word, right?

I just always felt
it was wrong for me

to try to take credit
for the work that I did.

I don't think that way anymore.

We've got to be able
to say our ideas

and then I'm going to quote
Gloria Steinem on this,

"Put lights around it," right?

"Beat the drum.

"You know, put it in writing.

"Put your name on it
to make sure

that you get the credit
for the idea that you had."

85, se puede.

35, se puede!

For Cesar, "Si, se puede,"
wasn't just a slogan.

When people in Arizona said,

they told me,
"No, Dolores, no se puede.

You can't do this in Arizona,
only in California,"

my response to them was,
"Si, se puede."

Si, se puede. 35, se puede.

Hers was the rallying cry
that would later come to define

the presidential campaign
of candidate Barack Obama.

Yes, we can!

Have you heard President Obama
say, "Yes, we can"?

It came from Cesar Chavez,
"[Si, se puede!"

Dolores Huerta came
up with the slogan "Si, se puede"

and we all attribute that
to Cesar Chavez,

even Barack Obama.

Of course, when he gave her the
Presidential Medal of Freedom,

he had to correct himself.

On a personal note,
Dolores was very gracious

when I told her I had stolen
her slogan, "Si, se puede."

Yes, we can."

Knowing her, I'm pleased
that she let me off easy

because Dolores does not play.

All that a person
has is his or her story:

Who they are,
what they've gone through,

what their families
have gone through.

This is their story.

And when you're trying
to deny them their story,

you're taking away their power.

When you hear Dolores Huerta

talking about the erasure
of indigenous,

black, and other memories
in our histories,

it's really about
that struggle for memory

and the memory that emancipates

or the memory that enslaves.

That's what we learned
from our antepasados

and our ancestors
and from Dolores:

You don't have
to cower to power.

You have your own dignity.

It's beautiful to be Mexican.

It's beautiful to be Chicano.

A yes would
insert Dolores Huerta.

The vote is six to nine.

The amendment fails.

Arizona governor Jan
Brewer has signed the law

banning ethnic studies
in Arizona public schools.

No matter what Tom Horne does

or what Jan Brewer does,

nothing that they can do
can stop us

from telling our stories.

So her legacy to me
is one of sustainability.

You can do this work
and not burn out, right?

None of us have an excuse
to tap out.

You were a young girl.

You must have had a dream.

Not the dream of being someone
who liberated farmworkers.

There must have been something
beyond that.

Could I have chosen,

I would probably
have been a dancer.

I love dancing very much
and music very much,

but I found out
that I like people better

than I do dancing or music.

Despite the fact that
Dolores didn't follow her passion

to become a dancer,

she is a dancer
on the stage of justice.

♪ Suavemente, bésame A'

♪ Que yo quiero sentir
tus labios A'

♪ Beséndome otra vez' ♪

♪ Suavemente, bésame A'

♪ Que yo quiero sentir
tus labios A'

♪ Beséndome otra vez' ♪

♪ base, base ♪

♪ bésame un poquito' ♪

♪ base, base, base ♪

♪ Bésame otro ratito' ♪

♪ Cuando tu me besas' ♪

♪ Me siento en el airs ♪

♪ For eso cuando te veo ♪

♪ Comienzo a besarte' ♪

♪ Y si te despegas ♪

♪ Yo me despierto' ♪

♪ De ese rico suefio' ♪

♪ >J' Que me dan tus besos' ♪

♪ Suavemente' ♪

♪ Bésame, que yo quiero sentir
tus labios A'

♪ Besando me otra vez' ♪

♪ Suavemente ese carol ♪

♪ Bésame Es la cosa A'

♪ que yo quiero sentir (us
labios a'

♪ Besando me otra vez' ♪

♪ >J' Bésame suavecito I'

♪ Sin prise y can calma ♪

♪ Dame un beso bien profundo,
que me Ilegue al alma' ♪

♪ Dame un beso mas,
que en mi boca cabs ♪

♪ Dame un beso despacito,
dame un beso suave A'

♪ Suavemente' ♪

♪ Until the philosophy
which holds one race superior ♪

♪ And another ♪

♪ Inferior ♪

♪ Is finally ♪

♪ And permanently ♪

♪ Discredited ♪

♪ And abandoned ♪

♪ Everywhere is war ♪

♪ War ♪

♪ That until there's no longer ♪

♪ First class and second class
citizens of any nation ♪

♪ That until the color
of a man's skin ♪

♪ Is of no more significance
than the color of his eyes ♪

♪ I got to say war. ♪

♪ That until the basic
human rights ♪

♪ Are equally guaranteed
to all ♪

♪ Without regard to race ♪

♪ We say war. ♪

♪ That until that day ♪

♪ The dream of lasting peace ♪

♪ World citizenship ♪

♪ And the rule
of international morality ♪

♪ Will remain but a fleeting
illusion to be pursued ♪

♪ But never attained ♪

♪ Well, everywhere is war ♪

♪ War. ♪

♪ War in the east ♪

♪ War in the west ♪

♪ War up north ♪

♪ War down south ♪

♪ There'll be war ♪

♪ And the rumors of war. ♪

♪ That until the ignoble
and unhappy regimes ♪

♪ Which hold our sisters
in Africa, yeah ♪

♪ Africa, yeah ♪

♪ Sub-human bondage ♪

♪ Has been toppled ♪

♪ Utterly destroyed ♪

♪ Everywhere is war ♪

♪ War. ♪

♪ That until that day ♪

♪ The African continent ♪

♪ Will not know peace ♪

♪ We Africans will fight ♪

♪ We find it necessary ♪

♪ And we know we shall win ♪

♪ 'Cause we are confident ♪

♪ In the victory ♪

♪ Of good over evil ♪

♪ Of good over evil ♪

♪ Of good over evil ♪

♪ Good over evil ♪

Si, se puede. Yes, we can.