As co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, Dolores Huerta led picket lines, boycotts and negotiated with grape growers at a time when there were few female leaders in the labor movement.
Huerta’s conviction led her to leave teaching and join the Community Service Organization, which advocated for Mexican Americans across the Southwest. There, she met Chavez, and the pair eventually quit over their shared frustration that the group did not advocate more for farm workers, Margaret E. Rose wrote inChavez and Huerta founded the union that became the United Farm Workers against the backdrop of widespread activism against the Vietnam War.
The New York boycott was considered one of the most successful organized in U.S. cities, Sowards said. The resistance efforts ended after 26 grape growers, representing 35 percent of the industry,As Chavez’s vice president, Huerta was his trusted adviser but often fervently disagreed with him about tactics and priorities. She did not hesitate to share her opinions, Rose wrote, and she once reminded Chavez in a letter that she was “not the quiet long suffering type.
Huerta was also criticized for the amount of time she spent away from her 11 children while she worked. When she became pregnant while unmarried, Sowards said, some union members felt it would be embarrassing for her to interact with lawmakers in light of her Catholicism and many farm workers’ traditional values.
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