A remembrance of labor rights icon Dolores Huerta

Many are spending today remembering civil and labor rights activist Dolores Huerta, who died on Wednesday at 96.

“Dolores Huerta is an intrepid leader for labor rights, in particular farmworkers' rights,” said April Tellez, a professor of history and ethnic studies at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California, and author of “Dolores Huerta: A Life in American History.” “[She was] a huge and fierce advocate for women's rights, women's liberation; a civil rights organizer and leader; a woman who never took ‘no’ for an answer and a woman who paved the way for many populations in our country.”

Huerta co-founded what eventually became the United Farm Workers of America. For decades, she led strikes and protests pushing for better conditions for agricultural workers, including protections from pesticides, access to bathrooms, and fair working hours.

“Dolores Huerta teaches us that we need to speak truth to power. We need to demand change,” Tellez said.

In the process of writing the book about Huerta, Tellez said she was struck by how Huerta continued fighting for the rights of others, even while juggling the needs of her own family and dealing with poverty, in addition to abuse, including from her fellow activists.

Then, of course, there was just how much Huerta inspired others.

“She always said, ‘I'm not just an activist; I'm an organizer, right?’ And so, I'm not the one to look to necessarily for power,’” Tellez said. “I want to bring power out of people.”