http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/huerta-87635-rhetoric-rights.html
UFW co-founder shares her past triumphs, worries for country's future
October 16, 2009
By Nancy Pasternack/Appeal-Democrat
Labor rights powerhouse Dolores Huerta compared an atmosphere of
racism in America today to that of post-Weimar Germany, and tackled
everything from the rhetoric of health care to the demise of the
American newspaper during an appearance Thursday at Yuba College.
The event, part of the Crossing Borders Building Bridges lecture
series, packed a music rehearsal room with close to 150 students,
teachers and life-long admirers of Huerta, 79, who, along with Cesar
Chavez, founded what eventually became the United Farm Workers.
"Something is terribly wrong in this country," Huerta said. "We never
imagined so many empty houses and so many homeless people."
The fact that so much blame for economic troubles, and so much
negative attention has been directed toward immigrants and a black
president during heated rhetoric about national health care, she
said, is troubling.
"Hitler took power through an electoral process," Huerta said. "It
wasn't a coup. So we really have to worry about what's going on."
During an impromptu speech and question-and-answer session, Huerta's
presence took on the atmosphere of a civil-rights rally as she led
chants of "Si su puede" (Yes, it can be done) a slogan she
initiated during one of Chavez's most celebrated protests and
"Wozani" (Zulu for "People Together").
Toni Fresquez, one of the founders of North Valley Hispanic Chamber
of Commerce in Marysville, arrived early for Huerta's talk and sat in
the first row.
She remembers being about 12 years old when her parents, who had been
farm workers in Texas, took part in labor rallies led by Chavez and Huerta.
The farm workers movement, she said, "was something very important to
my family."
Through Chavez, she said, "I got to see history first-hand."
"My mother suffered a lot of prejudice in Texas, and he (Chavez) made
a difference for us all."
Racism and greed two primary themes of Huerta's talk are allowed
to flourish because news organizations are increasingly consumed by
corporate advertisers and their interests, Huerta said.
Fallacies are being promoted by greedy health insurance companies
through members of Congress, she said of recent health care reform
town hall meetings. Racist rhetoric is delivered successfully, Huerta
said, "because we're not informed."
"What happens when we don't have newspapers?" Voters will rely
entirely on corporate broadcast outlets, she said. "We won't know
what's really going on."
Angel Diaz, president of the local Hispanic chamber, said that from
his early years in Brooklyn, New York, he too remembers his parents
talking about the movement that Huerta helped start.
"They gave us the idea that through organizing, we had power."
Huerta's talk touched on her own personal history growing up in New
Mexico, teaching at a public school and coordinating East Coast
efforts in 1968-69 grape boycotts.
She went through a whirlwind tour of American Civil Rights history,
including prejudice against Okies and Arkies of the Dust Bowl era,
the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the
Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles.
But mostly, she exhorted the merits of staying informed and
organized, and of keeping legislators' feet to the fire.
"We have too many millionaires making decisions for working people."
But, she said, "the people who create the wealth of a country are the
people who do the work."
A lack of education about economics and civil rights history have
contributed, she said, to a lack of intelligent discussion and a fair
assessment of our circumstances.
Immigrants have become scapegoats she said, for America's economic
woes, instead of bankers and financiers who are at the root of the troubles.
"They're blaming the wrong people. Why do they hate immigrants so much?"
Immigrants, she said, "are picking our food, they're cleaning our
buildings, they are taking care of our babies, they are taking care
of our elderly, they are taking care of our disabled," she said.
"They have paid billions of dollars into Social Security, and they
will never see that money."
--
Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at
npasternack@appealdemocrat.com
.
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