All language subtitles for dolores.2017.480p.hdtv.x264.rmteam

[engines revving,
crickets chirping]

[dog barking]

[pensive upright bass music]

♪ ♪

[people chattering]

[people speaking Spanish]

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

- I'm gonna bring her
out here right now.

Dolores!

[cheers and applause]

[slow percussive music]

♪ ♪

[dramatic percussive music]

♪ ♪

- 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.

[rhythmic clapping]

And while her name's
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 Causa!
all: Viva!

Viva la Huelga!
all: Viva!

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

all:
Huelga! Huelga! Huelga!

- The workers are on the rise.

- Dolores Huerta,
who's 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.

[rhythmic grunting]

- Conservatives on
the Texas Board of Education

removed the legendary
farmworker organizer,

Dolores Huerta, from the state
social studies curriculum.

- I gotta tell ya,
I never heard of this woman.

- We really gotta
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've had a dream.

[reflective piano music]

- 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, you know,
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 1950s

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, at 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.

le 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.

[soft instrumental music]

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.

- 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
their 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
streetlights 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 wanna 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.

[laid back guitar music]

- 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.
[laughs]

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.

You know, 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.

Um, 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,

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.

You know, 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, they're fi--

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."

[smooth jazz music]

- 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 CSO 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."

[tense guitar music]

♪ ♪

[horn honking]

[dog barking]

♪ ♪

- 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...

[harrowing string music]

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

This was a very real threat

for all the 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 has 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,

when 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

and a lot of--you know--

I mean, there was a lot
of that going 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,

'cause if you did,

were they gonna
kick out your family?

Where were you gonna 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.

[light percussive music]

♪ ♪

- 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,

or you might think,
"Well, you can't do that.

"You've got seven kids.

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

Many people thought
I was making

a very foolish decision.

- [giggles]

[chatters]

♪ ♪

- 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.

[bluesy guitar music]

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 years.

[slow, smooth jazz music]

♪ ♪

- It was very, very sad.

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, um,

my mother really
didn't belong to us.

- ♪ De colores ♪

♪ De colores se visten ♪

♪ Los campos en la primavera ♪

[cheery acoustic music]

- 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,

that workers
could be organized.

She had the faith and the drive

and the enthusiasm,

so those are some
of the reasons.

The, uh--the skills,

a lot of knowledge
and a lot of just, uh,

willingness to sacrifice.

[man and woman
singing in Spanish]

♪ ♪

- 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 1,000 members.

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, like, 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"
sung by Sharon Jones]

- ♪ This land is your land ♪

♪ This land is my land ♪

- We want you to know that
our struggle is not with you!

- ♪ From California ♪

[indistinct yelling]

♪ Well to the New York
islands ♪

♪ ♪

♪ From the redwood forest ♪

♪ ♪

♪ To the gulf stream waters ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I tell ya ♪

♪ This land ♪

♪ Was made for you and me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ As I went walking ♪

♪ ♪

- 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.

all:
♪ Solidarity ♪

- Let's hear it!

all:
♪ 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.

- [speaking Spanish]
- [chuckles]

- 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.
Un aplauso!

[cheers and applause]

- [speaking in Spanish]

- 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 Causa!
all: Viva!

Viva la Huelga!
all: Viva!

[cheering, shouting]

- 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 on the picket line,

and so it made it all right
for the husbands

to permit their wives
to be on 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, there's
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,
"'Cause 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 women 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 had 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.

[jaunty string music]

- 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.

- 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.

[jaunty instrumental music]

♪ ♪

- 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 the economic revolutions

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! ♪

♪ Your bad self! ♪

♪ Say it loud ♪

all: ♪ I'm black
and I'm proud! ♪

- ♪ Say it loud ♪

all: ♪ I'm black
and I'm proud! ♪

- ♪ Yeah! ♪

♪ Some people say we've got
a lot of malice ♪

♪ Some say
it's a lot of nerve ♪

♪ 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.

- ♪ Until we get our share ♪

- There was a lot of
electricity in the air.

I mean, it was new.

People were, like, free.

- ♪ Say it loud ♪

all: ♪ 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 saying...

- Venga!
- "Venga, hermanos.

Come on, come on."

[speaking in Spanish]

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,

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.

[applause]

- There was a lot of
passion in all of us

for what we were doing.

I mean, we were
making $5 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?"

"$5 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,

'cause he thought
it was regressive.

In reality,
it was the most transformative

period of my life.

[cheers and applause]

- 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, uh...

[laughs]

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...
[stammers]

Having a hairdo
and being in a spa

would be a terrible
waste of time.

[meditative music]

- 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 LA to say, you know,

"We know it all,
and we're gonna 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,
'cause we were,

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

- We have a tendency

to wanna 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, you know,

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 have had no trouble.

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

- We have no labor troubles.

[engine thrumming]

[solemn music]

[lively chatter]

♪ ♪

- Hey!

- How are you?

- Senator Kennedy actively
gave his backing

to the unionization campaign.

- Well, 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.

- And 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--

[crowd groans]

- 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?

[cheers and applause]

- 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 he'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 gonna win.

You could just
taste the victory.

[people chanting]

♪ ♪

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.

- With 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 has worked
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've 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.

[cheers and applause]

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

Thank you very much.

[cheers and applause]

[ominous ambient music]

♪ ♪

[indistinct clamoring]

[somber piano music]

[man singing
in foreign language]

♪ ♪

- 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're trying to end,

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

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

[airplane engine thrumming]

[solemn music]

- 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.

- 90,000 people
were poisoned last year.

1,000 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,

or 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 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 1960s,

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 race
and class background.

[people chanting in Spanish]

- 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, Mestiço,

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 Aztlán.

[Santana's "Oye Como Va"]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Oye como va ♪

♪ Mi ritimo ♪

♪ 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 it ignited a personal

and community-wide
self-evaluation

of who we were as a people.

- I 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.

- [speaking Spanish]

[applause]

[speaking Spanish]

crowd: Viva! Viva!

[reflective piano music]

♪ ♪

- 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 gonna
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--you know,
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.

[wistful trumpet music]

♪ ♪

This might sound kind of corny,

but you have to really
love people, you know,

to want to teach them,
to want to help them grow,

'cause 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 his 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 and the family.

He had a very loving nature.

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

but Richard was a great cook.

[chuckles]

- 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 lovechild...

[laughs]

Um, you know,
being called a bastard by some.

Um, 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--

a negative feeling
against my mom.

♪ ♪

- What particularly about
Dolores upsets people?

- [chuckles]

Well, it's her personal life.

All the children
without marriage,

and just one every year or so,

is not accepted as--
in--

and I think most of us
feel the same way.

[indistinct chatter]

- 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, you know,

to keep them out of their hair,

because, you know,
she--she--she just--

she just likes to talk
a hell of a lot.

- While you guys are trying
to stop the money,

we have to keep the law 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?

- Um, 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.

"They're going to
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.

And, 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.

[meditative music]

♪ ♪

- 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.

[indistinct chatter]

- Well, my mom's absences had

some positives
and negatives.

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

till ten months later,
you know, so--

[laughs]

- [speaking Spanish]

♪ ♪

- 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 gonna shoot at us,

as they did many times.

- [speaking Spanish]

- It was very hard.

I'll be honest with you.

Um, tough.

♪ ♪

- The movement became
her most important child.

I realized 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 gonna be gone again.

[children chattering]

- [shakily]
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,

and 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 wanna go with her,

'cause I liked my new home.

There was stability.

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

I mean, eventually,
I had to go back with her,

but I remember crying
and feeling like,

"This is 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.

♪ ♪

[sighs] You know,
but as I look back at it,

I'm like, I understand it.

I fully understand it.

You know, it's like--

and I know there's
brothers and sisters

that, you know,
had the same experiences,

but maybe they weren't so lucky
to be placed in a loving home,

um, 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 gotta give up
some comfort,

you've gotta
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 wanna wish it

on any child
or on any other woman,

what--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 gotta 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 gotta believe in

something bigger than you,
you know?

[upbeat instrumental music]

[people clapping, chattering]

♪ ♪

- Grape picking may be
a California problem,

but the United Farm Workers
are determined

to let New Yorkers
know about it.

♪ ♪

- 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,

in Chicago, in New York City,
and in 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 wanna 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.

[solemn music]

- I didn't really know
Dolores before New York,

but I think I was
scared of her.

[laughs]

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...

[laughing]
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,

and 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!

all: Abajo!

- Down with Gallo wine!

all: Abajo!

- Down with violence!

all: Abajo!

- Down with racism!

all: Abajo!

- Down with sexism!

all: Abajo!

♪ Sí, se puede!
Sí, 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--
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 demas,

they looked like the people
that they were representing,

and 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.

[crowd cheering]

- 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're gonna crack it.

[jaunty instrumental music]

- 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 10 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.

You don't have the right
strategies and tactics,

you're not gonna 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.

[people clapping, singing
"No Nos Moverán"]

all:
♪ No nos moverán ♪

♪ No, no ♪

♪ No nos moverán ♪

♪ No, no, no nos moverán ♪

- 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.

[off-kilter organ music]

- The relationship between
Cesar and my mother

was extremely complicated.

There were probably
the best of friends,

and they had
the most passionate

and heated arguments
that I've ever heard.

- There's gotta be a time

where the two of you
don't agree on something.

What do you do?

- Well, we agree,
we fight with each other.

We argue, and--
[clears throat]

But it's always on the issue,

and it's never been
a personality thing.

- They were
each other's peers,

and she felt
she had every right

to speak up and say her piece,
and he didn't like that.

You know, he would fire her,
and she'd say, "I quit,"

but she'd be there, you know,

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...

[speaking Spanish]

[chuckles]

- 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-men.

- 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, [bleep]'s
gonna hit the fan,

because, you know, as soon
as it gets out, and Cesar"--

and 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,
you know, 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 boycott,

and the sacrifices of time
and our families,

you know, going to jail.

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

[cheers and applause]

[energetic percussive music]

♪ ♪

We had contracts
not only in California.

We had contracts in Arizona,
New Mexico,

and even parts of Texas.

- 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
the Sweetheart Contract

with the Teamsters Union.

- 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.

♪ ♪

- 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!

- [chuckles]
- He's a freak.

- You stink! You smell!

- They had all these
injunctions against us,

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

- Sheriff's deputies
have arrested

a 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.

- After that came
all the violence.

♪ ♪

[helicopter blade thrumming]

♪ ♪

[pepper spray hisses]

♪ ♪

[people screaming]

♪ ♪

- Leave me alone!

♪ ♪

[clamoring reverberates]

[bleak ambient music]

♪ ♪

[man singing
in foreign language]

♪ ♪

[solemn guitar music]

♪ ♪

- 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.

[soft ambient music]

♪ ♪

[machinery hissing, rumbling]

- Big business
and agribusiness

and racist police departments

and 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, you know?

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.

[people yelling]

- 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.

[solemn music]

- 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 Agriculture
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 Agriculture
Labor Relations board.

Because of the appointments
that were made,

the growers refused
to bargain.

We've filed charges,
they're dismissed,

you know, 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 gonna make a tremendous
amount of difference.

- Some 4 million
illegal aliens

are expected to seek amnesty.

- We're ready to give those
people permanent residency.

[lively jazz music]

- But the growers don't
want them to be legalized,

because once
they're legalized,

they can contest 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 fundraiser
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,

"Well, I don't
wanna do anything

that's gonna hurt
the environment."

"What about contras?
What about contras?"

I'm glad to be inside.

[applause]

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.

[people screaming]

America is never
wholly herself

unless she is engaged
in high moral principle.

For democracy
belongs to us all.

[tense music]

- 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.

♪ ♪

[low-pitched wallops
reverberating]

♪ ♪

[bell sounds]

[audio rewinds]

[atmospheric music]

♪ ♪

[trumpet music playing]

[bell dinging]

[people chanting]

[percussions rattle,
whooshing intensifies]

[soft atmospheric music]

♪ ♪

- 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.

[poignant music]

♪ ♪

- 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, you know,
I just felt terrible

and said, "Dolores,
what can I do for you?"

And she just said,

"Boycott Safeway."

[laughs]

- 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,

and 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,
'cause all of 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.

♪ ♪

[dialogue inaudible]

♪ ♪

- [speaking indistinctly]

[laughs]

♪ ♪

- 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."

And 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
and fighting with each other.

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

[solemn guitar music]

[people chanting]

♪ ♪

[man speaking in Spanish]

- 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 the glue.

He was like a certain
binding agent, you know?

[scoffs]

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, um...
[chuckles]

I think--I worked
many years with Cesar,

but I think it's--
you know, I don't--

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 farmworkers' union
run by a woman?

That would've been history.

- But she was not chosen.

- She called me to tell me,
after Cesar passed,

that she was not gonna
succeed Cesar as president,

and I, like, got so upset.

And then, you know,
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 a fight,

one fight after another,
if I fought for this."

- The workers wanted her,
the volunteers wanted her,

you know,
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,

you know, 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've thought.

- 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 compañera,
Dolores Huerta.

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

- [speaking Spanish]

♪ ♪

- I remember my sisters
and I and my brother

being on the stage
and surrounding my mother,

you know, for support.

- [speaking Spanish]

♪ ♪

- It's 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?

[speaking Spanish]

♪ ♪

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

[poignant music]

♪ ♪

- [speaking Spanish]

♪ ♪

[speaking shakily]

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- Viva Dolores Huerta!

Viva Dolores Huerta!

Viva
Dolores Huerta!

[cheers and applause]

[slow piano music playing]

♪ ♪

- 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...

"Sí, se puede" moments also.

"I'm gonna 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've kept that money

to have a comfortable life
for herself,

but Dolores has never
been interested in

a comfortable life for herself.

- After feeling bad about
having to leave the union,

I thought to myself,
"I'm gonna use that money

to start doing
community organizing."

My friend, please stand up.

- That is when
Dolores announces

that she is founding
the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

all:
Escucha!

Estamos en la lucha!

- We're gonna start off
with Organizing 101.

- [speaking Spanish]

- She is really going
to the grassroots,

into people's 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.

[dialogue inaudible]

- We're not going to stop
until we get full legalization.

all:
Sí, se puede!

Sí, sí, se puede!

Sí, se puede!

- Viva la mujer!
all: Viva!

- Viva la Raza!
all: Viva!

- We can make the change,
but it's gotta start with us.

[cheers, chatter]

- 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

uh, rejected that you, uh,

be part of the social
studies curriculum.

- The reason people are
opposed to Dolores Huerta...

- Right.

- 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 Horne,

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 ya, I never
heard of this woman before.

- [laughs]
- 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 how--
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 an 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.

- I mean, if you look at
the books that were written,

you never see Dolores Huerta
referred to as co-founder.

- 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 really gotta
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 that'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 guess I 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 gonna quote
Gloria Steinem on this--

"Put lights around it,"
right?

Beat the drum.
[pounding on table]

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.

all: Sí, se puede!
- Sí, se puede!

all: Sí, se puede!

- For Cesar,

"Sí, 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,
"Sí, se puede."

all:
Sí, se puede! Sí, 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:
Sí, se puede.

- Dolores Huerta came up
with the slogan,

"Sí, 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.

[laughs]

- On a personal note,
Dolores was very gracious

when I told her
I had stolen her slogan,

"Sí, se puede,"
yes, we can.

Uh, knowing her,

I'm pleased that
she let me off easy,

'cause Dolores does not play.

[cheers and applause]

[reflective piano music]

♪ ♪

- 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.

♪ ♪

Vote is 6 to 9.

The amendment fails.

- Arizona governor Jan Brewer
has signed a 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've had a dream.

Not the dream of being someone
who liberated farmworkers.

There must've been
something beyond that.

- Could I have chosen,

I would've probably have
been a dancer.

[chuckles]

I love dancing very much,
and music very much,

but I found out
that I like people

better than I did dancing
or music.

[cheers and applause]

[energetic percussive 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 ♪

♪ Te quiero sentir
tus labios ♪

♪ Besándome otra vez ♪

♪ Bésame otra vez ♪

♪ Yo quiero sentir
tus labios ♪

♪ Besándome otra vez ♪

♪ Besa, besa ♪

♪ Bésame un poquito ♪

♪ Besa, besa, besa, besa ♪

♪ Bésame otro ratito ♪

[Elvis Crespo's "Suavemente"]

♪ ♪

♪ Cuando tu me besas ♪

♪ Me siento en el aire ♪

♪ Por eso cuando te veo ♪

♪ Comienzo a besarte ♪

♪ Y si te despegas ♪

♪ Yo me despierto ♪

♪ De ese rico sueño ♪

♪ Que me dan tus besos ♪

♪ Suavemente ♪

♪ Bésame ♪

♪ Que yo quiero
sentir tus labios ♪

♪ Besando me otra vez ♪

♪ Suavemente ese coro! ♪

♪ Bésame ♪

♪ Que yo quiero
sentir tus labios ♪

♪ Besando me otra vez ♪

♪ Bésame suavecito ♪

♪ Sin prisa y con calma ♪

♪ Dame un beso bien profundo ♪

♪ Que me llegue al alma ♪

♪ Dame un beso mas ♪

♪ Que en mi boca cabe ♪

♪ Dame un beso despacito ♪

♪ Dame un beso suave ♪

♪ Suavemente ♪

[Bob Marley's "War" performed
by Sinéad O'Connor]

♪ ♪

- ♪ 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 ♪