UFW Co-Founder Dolores Huerta To Speak At Chavez Commemoration

Dolores Huerta, who together with Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers, will visit the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Thursday, March 24 as keynote speaker for the annual Claremont Colleges commemoration of the birthday of Cesar Chavez. Huerta's discussion, The UFW: Past, Present, and Future, is sponsored by the The Claremont Colleges Cesar Chavez commemoration committee. The public portion of the event begins at 6:45 and seating is on a first-serve basis.
Huerta received the Outstanding Labor Leader Award in 1984, and in 1993 was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Ms. Magazine ranked her one of three "Women of the Year" in 1998, and she was named one of the "100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century" by Ladies Home Journal. Huerta, currently secretary-treasurer of United Farm Workers, vice president for the Coalition for Labor Union Women, and vice president of the California AFL-CIO, served as Chavez's trusted advisor for more than 30 years. Additionally, she was a founding member of the Stockton chapter of the grassroots organization Community Service Organization.
Huerta became involved in the farm workers' movement in 1955, when she quit her job as a teacher. "I couldn't stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes," she has said. "I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children."
For more information on Dolores Huerta, visit the current issue of The Fortnightly: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/mmca/temp_fn.asp?volumeFN=20&issueFN=09&typeFN=f