Cesar Chavez – Nina Schmidt ~ Vancouver German and Spanish Lessons

Biography: Dolores Huerta

Learn With Nina — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 00:03:22 +0000

Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta was born on April 10, 1930 in New Mexico. Her grandparents had come to the United States from Mexico. Her father was a coal miner and agricultural worker. Her parents divorced when she was only three years old and she and her two brothers were raised by her mother in Stockton, California. Her mother played an active role in many community organizations. She also helped the migrant farm workers by allowing them to stay in her hotel at low prices. Dolores says of her mother that she was a very generous and compassionate woman.

Huerta began her own community activism while still in high school. She faced discrimination as a Latina growing up in the 1940s and 1950s and was an advocate for equal treatment for all. She trained to become a teacher, but she felt that she could do more by becoming an activist.

In 1962, she cofounded the National farmworkers Association with César Chávez. Together they organized numerous strikes on behalf of agricultural workers from various backgrounds. She also supported bills such as a 1960 bill to permit Spanish-speaking people to receive a driver’s license examination in Spanish in California. Like César Chávez, Huerta believed in nonviolent forms of protest. In addition to her work with farmworkers, she has also focused on women’s rights and actively encourages Latinas to run for political office.

Dolores is president of her own foundation that she started in 2002. For her activism, she has also received numerous honors and awards including the presidential medal of freedom which she received from President Obama in 2012.

Huerta has been married twice and has a total of 11 children. She was also in a long term relationship with Richard Chávez, the brother of her fellow activist César, until his passing in 2011.

Biography: Cesar Chavez

Learn With Nina — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 14:04:34 +0000

Cesar Chavez was a union leader and civil rights activist. He was ‘Chicano’ a term that refers to the descendants of Mexicans living in the United States. Many roads, schools, and other institutions bear his name particularly in California and Arizona. During his life he became an icon in the Latino community. His famous expression “Sí, se puede” was used by Barrack Obama in 2008 in his election campaign.

Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona in 1927. His parents were Mexican farm workers. He was one of six children. Sadly, his family lost their home during the Great Depression forcing them to emigrate to California in search of work. He had a difficult childhood and his family struggled for years to feed themselves. Chávez had to leave school in the seventh grade to start working in the fields.

At the age of 25, Chavez began to become involved in the labor movement. He encouraged Mexican Americans to vote and organize themselves to have a political voice. In 1962, he helped form the United Union of Agricultural Workers or UFW. He also began to organize strikes with leaders of other minority groups to fight for better working conditions and pay for all.

Chavez believed in a form of nonviolent protest and often fasted for long periods of time in protest. He also began working with another activist who was named Dolores Huerta in the 1970s. Together they held one of the biggest labor strikes ever in the history of the United States!

In 1948, Chavez had married Helen, his high school sweetheart, and together they had eight children. Throughout his life, he remained vegan because he believed in animal rights. Chavez died in 1993 at the age of 66. Today, March 31, his birthday, is known as Cesar Chavez Day and is a state holiday in California, Colorado and Texas.