Dolores Huerta honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award

Dolores Huerta, the civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers of America—which fights for the rights, safety, power and dignity of agricultural workers—was given the AFT’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the convention on Saturday.

AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus introduced Huerta before honoring her with the award. DeJesus said that Huerta was a teacher in the 1950s, but she left the profession because “she couldn’t stand seeing farmworker children come to class hungry.”

“Mi familia, that was the first rumble of an earthquake,” DeJesus added.

As a leader of the UFW, Huerta led the 1960s wine and grape boycotts; and in the early 1970s, her efforts helped pass the 1975  Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the first law that gave California farmworkers the right to collectively bargain. 

DeJesus said that Huerta’s activism proved that Latinas don’t just belong in the labor movement: They lead it, shape it and change history. 

“At the heart of it all, I see her sacrifice, and our mothers’ and grandmothers’ sacrifices. These mujeres poderosas looked power straight in the eye—intimidating white male power—and spoke the truth,” DeJesus said. 

After accepting her award, Huerta thanked the crowd of AFT members not only for keeping children safe but also for keeping democracy alive—especially amid the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants and public education.

Calling out MAGA extremists, Huerta said, “They want to privatize our educational system. They want to continue to keep the country in ignorance. They want to bring us back to the days of slavery where people do not have rights.” Why? “Because they know as long as they can keep people ignorant, they can keep people divided.” 

But Huerta has hope, and she thanked AFT members for “Keeping hope alive. Keeping education alive. Keeping our spirit alive.” She also encouraged the crowd to remind congressional candidates to pass the Equal Rights Amendment “so we can finally have it in our Constitution that women are equal to men.” 

At the end of her speech, Huerta encouraged the crowd to chant her signature phrase: “Sí, se puede!”

[Alvin Buyinza/Photo credit: Megan Ackerman]