Dolores Huerta quotes:

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  • My dad was very intelligent, had a very strong personality. I was amazed with my father.

  • Professional farmworkers who know how to do a number of different jobs, whether it be pruning or picking or crafting, they see themselves as professionals, and they take a lot of pride in that work. They don't see themselves as doing work that is demeaning.

  • I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

  • My mother never made me do anything for my brothers, like serve them. I think that's an important lesson, especially for the Latino culture, because the women are expected to be the ones that serve and cook and whatever. Not in our family. Everybody was equal.

  • Don't be a marshmallow. Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk. Stop being vegetables. Work for Justice. Viva the boycott!

  • My mother was a very wonderful woman. When she and my dad divorced, she moved to California and worked two jobs in the cannery at night and as a waitress during the day. But she saved enough money to establish a restaurant.

  • When you have a conflict, that means that there are truths that have to be addressed on each side of the conflict. And when you have a conflict, then it's an educational process to try to resolve the conflict. And to resolve that, you have to get people on both sides of the conflict involved so that they can dialogue.

  • Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

  • If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?

  • Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk.

  • I remember as a little girl going down to the beet fields in the Dakotas and in Nebraska and Wyoming as migrant workers when I was very, very small, like, I was, like, 5 years old, I believe. And I remember going out there, you know, traveling to these states and living in these little tarpaper shacks that they had in Wyoming.

  • My mother was a dominant force in our family. And I always saw her as the leader. And that was great for me as a young woman, because I never saw that women had to be dominated by men.

  • Honor the hands that harvest your crops.

  • When you choose to give up your time and resources to participate in community work, that's what makes a leader.

  • We as women should shine light on our accomplishments and not feel egotistical when we do. It's a way to let the world know that we as women can accomplish great things!

  • If we don't have workers organized into labor unions, we're in great peril of losing our democracy.

  • That's the history of the world. His story is told, hers isn't.

  • If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others.

  • Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

  • We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for.

  • Every single day we sit down to eat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and at our table we have food that was planted, picked, or harvested by a farm worker. Why is it that the people who do the most sacred work in our nation are the most oppressed, the most exploited?

  • We can't let people drive wedges between us... because there's only one human race.

  • The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women's movement, and the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights.

  • We just have to convince other people that they have power. This is what they can do by participating to make change, not only in their community, but many times changing in their own lives. Once they participate, they get their sense of power.

  • I want to say to mothers out there, you know, take your children to marches. Take them to meetings because this is a way that they can become strong, and they understand what politics is all about because they are actually living it.

  • Giving kids clothes and food is one thing, but it's much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people.

  • People would say 'Who is a leader?' A leader is a person that does the work. It's very simple. It's a personal choice for people who choose to put in their time and their commitment to do the work. It's a personal choice.

  • There's just so many facets, I think, of the ignorance in our society that have to be corrected if we're really going to have a democratic society and a society that is just and that respects all of the members of this society regardless of who they are, what color they may be, what sexual orientation that they have or what gender, you know, they happen to be.

  • When a group of people get together, it's collective power. You know that you're doing it for the good.

  • We criticize and separate ourselves from the process. We've got to jump right in there with both feet.

  • The thing about nonviolence is that it spreads. When you get people to participate in nonviolent action - whether it's a fast, a march, a boycott, or a picket line - people hear you, people see you, people are learning from that action.

  • Among our people, theres not any question about women being strong -- even stronger than men -- they work in the fields right along with the men. When your survival is at stake, you dont have these questions about yourself like middle -- class women do.

  • People can take power over their communities and over their lives. Some people don't realize they can do that. They think 'It's OK for other people, but I myself can't do it.' Hopefully, that will come out of the film.

  • I say that now we see a lot of hateful rhetoric against Mexicans and the Latino community, but we have a very powerful weapon. And that is our vote. This is the way we can get even with all of the politicians who are insulting us and saying terrible things about our community - by voting them out. And get the good ones. Vote them in.

  • We need to keep ringing the bell, wake people up to get our democracy together. Farm workers are like a symbol, and it is good that people are paying attention.

  • If we can just convince other people to get involved, this could make some major changes in our society. It's very exhilarating.

  • Sometimes, we have to promote ourselves. Just go out and be very active about trying to find an opportunity.

  • As a youngster and being a Latina, you see so much injustice.

  • We have to get back down to basics. We have to start organizing at the neighborhood level to get people educated to vote.

  • My mother was a dominant force in our family. And that was great for me as a young woman, because I never saw that women had to be dominated by men.

  • I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.

  • Leadership is a choice one makes.

  • My son, Emilio Huerta, is running for congress. He was a young man who was marching and picketing.

  • You could really belong to a group of people and with other people, you could really make some significant changes - through the electoral process, of course, by registering people to vote, and by supporting good people who were running for office. For me, it was like I had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

  • Especially as a teenager, I was always being racially profiled by the police. You just see all this injustice, and you want to do something about it, but you don't know how.

  • Our society is connecting workers with the products people consume and recognizing workers for their contributions. It is important to do that, and to have organized labor - a middle class - to preserve our democracy.

  • Why is it that farmworkers feed the nation but they can't get food stamps?

  • The racist rhetoric from politicians is inspiring people to organize, as more people see what happens by not getting active.

  • Gloria Steinem in the women's movement. Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority. There are all of these great wonderful women I've met that are so inspirational.

  • I hope people become inspired to become active in their community. That's the important thing.

  • How do I stop eleven million people from buying the grape?

  • A women's place in history has never been given the attention that it needs to be given, and that's why we have a lot of the misogyny in our society today.

  • My children grew up very resourceful and strong in spite of them having to live with different families and that I had to drag them all over the country with me.

  • Once you see the outcomes and the results, and you see how many people are helped and benefitting, you want to keep on doing it because it's so simple.

  • I am happy to see that, increasingly, people care about farm workers. There is tremendous interest in where and how our food is grown.

  • I think, if anything, my children are the ones who have sacrificed because I've had to too many times be absent from them. But, at the same time, they have lived very enriched lives and probably experienced things they wouldn't have if not for the movements. So, there are some rewards.

  • When you talk about sacrifices, the ones in my family who have sacrificed are my children, because I love what I'm doing. I love the work. I love to go out there and talk about organizing the people. To me, that's something I really enjoy.

  • I call myself an addicted organizer.

  • I had been a Girl Scout from the time I was 8 to the time I was 18 years old. I had belonged to my church organization and youth groups. But, you never really found a way that you could make a change.

  • The majority of Latinos in this country are 28 years old or younger. All of those people out there attacking the Latino community, when you see a Latino going down the street with a baby carriage and a couple of children walking beside them, they should say 'Hey, there goes my social security and my Medicare.' Those are the people that are going to contribute to keep our social security system funded and our medical system funded.

  • As organizations, we have to find ways to create more opportunities, especially for our young people. A lot of corporations, they have to make opportunities for young people - create internships, for example, even if it's only half-time.

  • If you don't know, your labor unions and community organizations, there's somebody you can ask to guide you. A lot of people, especially in the Latino community, they have this big ballot and all these names and propositions on it, and they say 'Oh my God'. They don't know which of these to vote for, so they don't vote.

  • I was very fortunate to have known Fred Ross Sr., who was organizing the Community Service Organization (CSO) way back in the late 50's and early 60's. I was able to work with him.

  • Once I learned about grassroots organizing, I got so enamored with it because I thought 'Wow this is the way you do it!'

  • My kids have lived experiences that could have never been duplicated otherwise. That's one thing about people who get involved in activism, you live so many experiences that otherwise they wouldn't be there. This is why peoples' lives are so enriched.

  • Going door to door and talking to people, convincing them to vote - this is what I call Organizing 101.

  • The first time when I was organizing, I went out and started knocking on doors to see if people were registered to vote. I was a door knocker. I didn't even have the confidence that I could register people, so I just was out there door knocking. That was my first experience.

  • Exercise your right to vote.

  • We have to convince people that they have the power to elect people. The people they are electing are the ones making the decisions about how our tax dollars are going to be spent. Is it going to be for more jails, or for more schools? For more house services? It's very important that people understand that, do their research and find out who to vote for.

  • We know we only have about half of our population that's voting.

  • Through that organization [Community Service Organization], I met Cesar Chavez. We had this common interest about farm workers. We ultimately left CSO to start the National Farm Workers Organization, which became the United Farm Workers. I was very blessed to have learned some of the skills of basic grassroots organizing from Mr. Ross and then be able to put that into practice in both CSO and the United Farm Workers.

  • It's important to realize that we all need to work together. With Weaving Movements, we are all interdependent and we all have to work together. If we could just realize that and understand that, we'll keep our country strong.

  • Of course, we have leaders in the African American community as well that we've all worked with. One of the great rewards of being an activist is that you get to meet all these wonderful people. And there are many unsung heroes. There are so many out there that are good people that are working hard.

  • I'm glad that the fact that people are still getting poisoned by pesticide drift is gaining attention.

  • In fact, the corporations are driving out the competition and it is not getting better, especially when they are not paying income taxes. Thank goodness for the social media out there, because we sure can't count on the corporate media to get the word out.

  • As we've focused more on our food and where it comes from, people now have greater awareness of what's being put onto our food, pesticides, labeling issues, and consumer health.

  • Employers able to work together with workers and sharing gains and profits will lead to a much better world, getting away from income inequality.

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