L.A. County declares Thursday as Dolores Huerta Day

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors proclaimed Thursday, April 10, as Dolores Huerta Day, in recognition of the labor leader and civil rights activist's upcoming 95th birthday.

Supervisor Hilda Solis, who introduced the motion, lauded Huerta for inspiring her life and career and joked that she didn't "look a day over 30." Huerta, who attended the meeting with her two daughters, beamed with pride, calling the supervisors the face of courage and thanking them for honoring her.

"When Coretta Scott King said `We will never have peace in the world until women take power' and to see all of you great supervisors here is showing that example to women," Huerta said, referring to the fact that all five county supervisors are women.

Dolores Clara Fernández was born April 10, 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico and moved to Stockton, California at the age of three with her mother after her parents divorced.

Witnessing racism against Latino-Americans from early on inspired her toward activism. The National Museum of Women's History lists two significant events she witnessed as a child: when a prejudiced schoolteacher accused her of cheating because her papers were too well-written and in 1945, at the end of World War II, when white men brutally beat her brother for wearing a zoot suit, at the time a popular Latino fashion item. She took up her last name after marrying her second husband and fellow activist Ventura Huerta.

She received an associate teaching degree from the University of the Pacific's Delta College and briefly taught school in the 1950s. Working with hungry farm children coming to school motivated her in organizing farmers and farm workers.

In 1955, she founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization, which led voter registration drives and fought for economic stability for Latinos, according to the motion introduced by Solis.

Huerta met activist César Chávez through an associate and in 1962, the pair founded the National Farm Workers Association, the predecessor of the United Farm Workers' Union. Huerta served as UFW vice president until 1999.

At the UFW she negotiated contracts and ardently advocated for safer working conditions including the elimination of harmful pesticides, and for unemployment and health care benefits for agricultural workers.

In 1973, Huerta led a consumer boycott of grapes resulting in the ground-breaking California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. Throughout her career, Huerta has worked to improve workers' legislative representation and toward electing more Latinos and women.

Solis listed some of her numerous accolades, include the Eugene V. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, the U.S. Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was also the first Latina inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

"Dolores, your life and legacy are an integral part of our collective history and resistance," Solis said, "I'm deeply honored to be a part of it and in knowing you and serving alongside you as you mentored me and so many others."

Huerta had equally complimentary things to share about Solis, who she called "modest" and said "never really brags about herself or the talks about the work that she's done."

Recalling Solis' advocacy against femicides in Mexico, Huerta congratulated her for achieving a significant milestone for women across borders.

Fellow Supervisor Janice Hahn recalled the grapes boycott and said it empowered women to take charge, even at a time when they were not working. "My dad was a civil rights leader himself but it was my mom who refused to buy grapes at the grocery store," Hahn said.

The board passed a similar motion in 2024, proclaiming April 10 as Dolores Huerta Day. "Today, we reflect on your passion to overcome challenges and make reality the changes we want the entire world to see," Board Chair Kathryn Barger said Tuesday. "Happy birthday and we look forward to celebrating you at 96, 97, 98, 99 and 100."