- Dolores Huerta (b. 1930). Chicana labor leader and first vice president of the United Farm Workers of America. Growing up in Stockton, California, she learned organizing skills through the Community Service Organization and the AFL-CIO sponsored Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to help migrant Mexican and Chicano farm laborers. A co-founder of the UFW (1962), Huerta has dedicated her life to the struggle for justice, dignity, and a decent standard of living for agricultural workers. She has served as UFW picket captain, organizer, chief contract negotiator, New York boycott director, field office director, and Executive Board member. Her activism has resulted in numerous arrests. Her lobbying and testimony before Congress and the California state legislature has brought the migrant workers’ struggle to the attention of lawmakers. She continues to carry the union’s nonviolent message to the American public and inspires many other women who have chosen to serve La Causa.
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