Todays Mighty Girl Hero is labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, who with Cesar Chavez, co-founded the National Farmworkers Union in 1962. The NFU later became the United Farm Workers -- the first union for American farm workers. Born Dolores Clara Fernandez in a New Mexico mining town in 1930, she grew up mostly in California, in a region with plentiful farms. Inspired by her mothers example, Huerta became interested in civil rights from an early age and was also actively engaged with the Girl Scouts until the age of 18. Huerta was briefly an elementary teacher in California, but quickly switched gears to focus on economic justice. As she said, I couldnt tolerate seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children. Her transition to advocacy work was lasting. Huerta spent the next 60 years working as a union leader and activist for womens and farmworkers rights, covering issues ranging from limiting exposure to toxic chemicals to encouraging the participation of Latinas in elected office. At the United Farm Workers, Huerta directed the national boycott of the California grape industry during the famous Delano grape strike which resulted in a historic collective bargaining agreement with the table grape growers in 1970. Among her many accolades, Huerta was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and United States Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights. Today, at nearly 84 years of age, Dolores Huerta continues to work tirelessly for a just world by advocating on behalf of the working poor, women, and children. For an inspiring picture book about Huerta, we recommend Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers for ages 6 - 9 at amightygirl/dolores-huerta A bilingual English/Spanish story about her life is also available entitled, “Side by Side: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez,” for readers 4 to 8 at amightygirl/side-by-side For more stories of role models who worked for positive social change, visit our “Activist Biography” section at amightygirl/books/history-biography/biography?cat=207 For more books about Latina girls and women, visit our visit our Latino / Hispanic American book section at amightygirl/books/fiction/multicultural-fiction?cat=47 And, for dual language Mighty Girl books in English and Spanish visit amightygirl/books?language=10
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:02:21 +0000
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