NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022
Volume 159 No. 22 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
PHOTOS BY NICK ZAMORA | SPARTAN DAILY
Above: Lifelong activist Dolores Huerta raises her fist in solidarity with working-class people and calls on the audience to do the same on Tuesday evening in the Student Union Ballroom. Below: About 300 San Jose State community members raise their fists in response to Huerta’s call to action and organization for the future.
Dolores Huerta speaks at SJSU Ninety-two-year-old activist says a new generation of advocacy must rise By Nick Zamora STAFF WRITER
Lifelong activist Dolores Huerta spoke at San Jose State’s Keynote Speaker series at the Student Union Ballroom Tuesday night, hoping to pass the torch to the next generation of activists. Diana Victa, department manager for the Cesar E. Chavez Community Action Center, said Huerta’s spirit continues to inspire her. “Dolores Huerta is 92 and a half years old and so the fact that she’s been doing this activism work for as long as she has been, I think, is so powerful,” Victa said. The longtime activist and advocate was introduced by university Interim President Steve Perez and California Senator Alex Padilla during the event and through a video message respectively. Huerta’s visit and speech on campus comes through a collaboration with and sponsorship from the Cesar E. Chavez Community Action Center. Huerta addressed a crowd of about 300 in-person attendants and more than 250 online through Zoom. She is immortalized on the SJSU campus with her image on the “Arch of Dignity, Equality and Justice” located next to Seventh Street Plaza. Huerta is also a founding member
of the United Farm Workers (UFW), a labor union for farm workers, alongside Cesar E. Chavez and today, is the president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to organizing communities empowered to pursue social justice, according to the foundation’s website. She said she took this speaking opportunity to call to the next generation of activists and organizers. During the event, Huerta said America right now is at a “critical, critical moment” as problems that are being talked about today were present when she was growing up, but are finally brought to the forefront of conversations. She spoke on being pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion and called for more women in boardrooms, specifically telling women present in the audience to: “Go for it” and “Do what the men do – Just apply and learn on the job.” Huerta’s activism began in the 1950s as an elementary school teacher who was tired of seeing her students come to class hungry and without shoes. She said she soon began working in leadership at the Stockton Chapter of the Community Service Organization as a means of taking
more power into her own hands. The Community Service Organization was founded in 1948 to empower immigrants through such programs as voter registration drives, citizenship classes, lawsuits and legislative campaigns, according to the Online Archive of California, a resource website that details the history of California. Huerta described how she would do “houseleanings” after she started working at the Community Service Organization Stockton Chapter. “Houseleanings” was a practice of gathering in small groups at someone’s house as a means to educate and gather political support for a cause. “Making people understand that they have power, that’s democracy,” Huerta said during the event. She said she was introduced to Cesar E. Chavez through her work with the Community Service Organization and soon resigned from her work at the organization
to help create the National Farm Workers Association in Spring 1962. Later, the National Farm Workers Association became UFW. The union today is the nation’s longest enduring and largest farm worker’s union that has a bargaining contract that represents thousands of farm workers in California, Oregon and Washington, according to the UFW website. Dolores is known for coming up with and popularizing the UFW’s motto: “¡Si, se puede!” or “Yes we can!” Eliana, who wished to go by her first name because of privacy concerns, said there needs to be more activist women of color, so people can look up to them. “I feel like for a lot of people she poses as a beacon of hope that regardless of your identities,” said Eliana, representative from the UndocuSpartan Student Resource Center and Student-at-Large for Associated Students. “You’re still
able to contribute to spaces where oftentimes we’re pushed aside or are disregarded.” The Stockton Chapter of the Community Service Organization was able to advocate for and institute laws that would empower and enfranchise Brown and underrepresented communities. During Huerta’s time with the Community Service Organization, she said she helped pass laws that require driver’s licenses and voter guides be available in Spanish as well as made public services accessible to Green Card holders in California. “It’s important to march and to protest, but unless it’s put into law that can be enforced, it can’t make a difference,” Huerta said. Huerta closed the evening by asking each individual to stand and raise a fist in solidarity for workers rights, in a call and answer exchange, “¡Si, se puede!” Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily