In 1965, the pair co-founded the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), a California-based union.
The 76-year-old great grandmother, and matriarch of the Mexican American labor movement, helped organize migrant farm workers and led a successful grape boycott. It lasted five years and resulted in a collective bargaining agreement with the California grape industry.
In the decades following the boycott, Huerta continued to organize, lobbying legislators and registering voters. She secured unemployment benefits for farm workers and lobbied against guest worker programs, what she calls "the equivalent of slave labor" in the mid-80s.
On Sept. 14, 1988, during a peaceful demonstration in San Francisco the petite Huerta was severely beaten by police officers and suffered fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen.
On the anniversary of the brutal assault, which resulted in a judgment against the city and police department, Huerta spoke to Teaching Tolerance about the recent immigrant protests, the future of the civil rights movement and what sustains her during difficult times.
Where do you get your energy?
The struggle gives you energy. I think you do as much as you can. People feel powerless. There are those who want to do something but they don’t know what to do. They’re anxious — it’s not so much energy, there is a lot of anxiety.
What did you think about the school walkouts last spring?
I was gratified. It took courage. It was an incredible sight of unity. There were other walkouts, like the one in Los Angeles over Proposition 187. It was very similar and very widespread but it didn’t get reported in the press. I think more schools participated this time. It was high school kids wanting something to change. They did the marches in the hopes that something would change. Now they have to get out there and work on the elections! One of the reasons we’ve been so successful at getting people elected is because we get undocumented people to come out, knock on doors and telephone bank.
And I encourage young people to do that.
Why don’t Americans understand the economic issues behind immigration?
We were never taught economics. Not unless you took a course in high school or college. We live in a society where it behooves people in power to keep us ignorant. We were not taught to give money back to the community; we’re taught instead to become consumers. And that’s deliberate.
When Dr. King died we should have also focused on economics. I think economics are at the center, but instead we use ignorance and [the concept of] race so working people will not have power. These are the tactics they use against us. Those of us in the movement know these tactics.
We should stop using this word ‘race’. We have one human race.
There are different ethnicities, but there is only one race.
What’s the best way for social justice organizations to collaborate?
It’s important to talk about workers’ rights. Everyone can relate to that. People need to learn about their rights. Especially [the anti-union] Right To Work. Talking about workers’ rights doesn’t exclude white people. It’s workers’ rights. There has to be more cooperation between black, brown and white. The society itself divides us and nobody talks about it.
What sustains you during difficult times?
Faith and power sustain me. A lot of faith. I ask for signs and I get them. Because you know [as a labor activist] I wasn’t just sacrificing myself, I was sacrificing all of my kids, especially the older ones. They had a hard time.
Is there anything that you’re afraid of?
One of my fears is the control of corporate media and how it controls people’s minds. We’re not breaking down the walls. We have to find a way to counter that. We have to be visual, organized, and we need more grassroots organizations. And we have to elect to power good people. You know, we have a lot of fakes. We need real people, our own people. And then it takes knowledge, organization and commitment. Some feel so powerless and they’re educated. I tell them, look, the farm workers did so much and they were uneducated!
My fear is that people are not doing as much as they should be doing.
This essay originally appeared on Tolerance.org, the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama.
