Q&A with civil rights activist Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta is a civil rights activist who has been working to fight for the rights of minority communities since the 1950s.

She will speak at 3:30 p.m. today at the Genome Science Building as a part of Immigration Awareness Week, which is hosted by the Campus Y’s Students United for Immigrant Equality committee.

Staff writer Andy Willard spoke with Huerta to discuss her experiences advocating for the rights of Latinos in America.

Daily Tar Heel: Who do you try to represent as a civil rights activist?

Dolores Huerta: One of the things I’m trying to really promote now in my speaking is that we’ve got to bring all of our movements together. We have a lot of us that work in silos and don’t really communicate with one another, and the issues that we have, that we’re fighting for, are so important. We need to come together to make them happen, whether it’s the environmental organizations, immigrants’ rights groups, women groups, LGBTQ organizations or peace organizations.

We’ve got to reach out to each other to support each other’s causes so that we can be successful, because otherwise it would be difficult if we’re just working on our own causes.

DTH: How have you tried to represent the Latino community throughout your career?

DH: Most of my career working in civil rights for Latinos is in trying to bring them rights that they didn’t have — going back to the ’50s, where we were able to get their ballots in Spanish language, and not only Spanish but other ethnic languages.

DTH: Was it your involvement in the Latino community that brought you to fight for farmers’ rights?

DH: Exactly. Seeing the need the farm workers had sort of steered me in that direction — getting unemployment for farm workers, getting farm workers the right to organize and getting disability insurance for farm workers.

DTH: Why have you continued to be an advocate since you began in the ’50s?

DH: Because I go back and I see the resounding changes, once people decide to get involved and engaged and organize together to bring tremendous changes in our country.

I’m committed to teaching people how to organize themselves, teaching them how to get civically engaged, how to put pressure on politicians, how they themselves can run for school boards and city councils and legislatures.

DTH: How have you seen the Latin American community in the states change since you started?

DH: Oh, it’s been a lot of changes. When I was organizing back in the ’50s you had very few Latino organizations — they were just some of what we call “mutual benefit organizations.” They are very common in the African-American and Latino community because we’re so poor. The first organizations formed were people coming back from service.

DTH: What advice would you give to students who want to make a difference in minority communities like you have?

DH: I just want to call them up and say please, please do get involved. We have so much need there for education. When I’m talking about education, I’m not just talking about educating young people or working people about what they can do in terms of organizing their lives in terms of making a difference, but also teaching the other communities, our politicians, our agencies, the wealthy about what they need to do to make this country a better place.

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