Icon Dolores Huerta. Si Se Puede!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Santana-Rocks-Greek-Theate-by-Linda-Milazzo-100815-605.html
8/15/10
By Linda Milazzo
"Organize!" That was the imperative delivered to Democracy Now!'s Amy
Goodman on Wednesday by civil rights, human rights, women's rights
and workers rights icon, Dolores Huerta - two days before Huerta's
80th birthday celebration benefiting the Dolores Huerta Foundation
(DHF) at Los Angeles' famed Greek Theater. As Huerta explained to Goodman:
"We've got to get good people elected, but we've got to go out there
and do that hard, door-to-door kind of work to educate people...,
because right now, unfortunately, not everybody has your [Pacifica
Radio] program, Amy. Not everybody listens to you. But we have to get
your message, and we have to take it to their doorstep and give it to
them, person to person, and make people understand that we have the
power, but we've got to take responsibility, and we've got to take
action. And this is how we can get the kind of a government that we want."
For some, the proposition of going 'door to door and person to person
to get good people elected,' may sound like a very lofty goal. But
it's not too lofty for Dolores Huerta. It's not too lofty for the
woman who co-founded United Farm Workers with her collaborator of 30
years, legendary labor leader and human rights advocate, Cesar
Chavez. Not too lofty for the woman who helped initiate legislation
to grant legal status to immigrants in 1986; who got voter ballots
printed in Spanish; who helped remove the citizenship requirement so
immigrants could receive public help; who inspired 17 million
Americans to stop eating grapes, and who raised eleven children while
negotiating labor deals to better workers' lives.
Indeed this goal is far from lofty for this powerhouse grassroots
organizer who stood with Bobby Kennedy the night he was assassinated,
and who was beaten so badly by San Francisco Police during a lawful
protest in 1988 that her spleen had to be removed. For this
indefatigable organizer, 'taking action to get the government she
wants' is a natural component of living to be passed along to others
to empower them to bring change.
To pass along these goals and the skills to achieve them, Ms. Huerta
created the Dolores Huerta Foundation For Community Organizing, which
uses the same methods to inspire direct action that she and Chavez
learned in their early days in the CSO:
The basic approach of the Dolores Huerta Foundation is to organize
intimate meetings in people's homes. The "host" invites six to eight
people to their home where a trained organizer explains how poor
working people have accomplished major changes through organization
and direct action. At that meeting, those in attendance are asked to
host other meetings. A chain of "house meetings" is conducted until
200 people have attended the meetings. They are then brought together
to form an organization. They vote to form a committee and become a
part of the "Vecinos Unidos" (United Neighbors). There are monthly
meetings conducted where information is given on topics that they
decide which range from immigration, safety, health issues, etc.
The innovation is that the group is further broken down to a
neighborhood level to have a personal influence in taking on and
solving the issues in the neighborhood. Each neighborhood elects a
leadership committee. They form a Leadership Council. This Leadership
group receives training and education on issues that they will pass
on to their neighbors. Neighborhood groups also meet once month. They
assess and evaluate their particular neighborhood and prioritize
which problems need to be addressed.
The great outcome of this type of organizing is that the
neighborhood committees can work to resolve multiple issues at once
as well as form a large base to address issues that affect all of
their community, be they state, federal or local issues."
Given Huerta and Chavez' tremendous achievements in creating the
United Farm Workers, organizing the grassroots, and moving critical
legislation forward, there's little doubt this training works. In
fact, since DHF was founded in 2003, it's already brought changes, as
Huerta points out:
"Some of the changes are absolutely miraculous. Some of our people
have been able to get swimming pools in their communities. We have
one community that actually had a gymnasium built at their middle
school. You know, we've got another community that's getting sewer
drains for twenty-seven homes that didn't have any kind of a sewer drain.
And we have a youth group, who are doing teen pregnancy prevention
programs, financial literacy, the first micro-lending program for
farm workers in the Central Valley of California. And the great thing
about this is that the people are doing this themselves. On the
Census, we knocked on 3,000 doors in one day. And then, of course, we
had to do a lot of pressure on our Blue Dog Congress people to get
them to vote for the healthcare bill that we were trying to get
passed recently."
The organizing never stops for this 80 year old force of nature. Even
her birthday concert at The Greek, which featured notable stars in
entertainment and politics, was designed around the theme of "Weaving
Movements Together."
Dolores Huerta:
"This whole idea of bringing movements together is important,
because it seems like each one of our movements has a different path.
You know, we have our Greens over here, labor over here, the
feminists, the LGBT movement. And I believe that in order to really
get the progressive agenda that we are all looking for and searching
for, that we've got to come together and, you know, kind of unite our
forces. We are a--you know, we are the majority in this country, but
if we don't come together, well, then we're not going to be able to
win our progressive agenda."
True to form, on Friday night, the movements came together. The Greek
was teeming with activists and activist groups from across the
progressive spectrum. Of special note was the tribute from Jodie
Evans, co-founder of CODEPINK, who has known and collaborated with
Huerta since 1975. Evans took to the stage with actor/activist Danny
Glover and members of CODEPINK.
Jodie Evans:
"Dolores knows that peace and justice are won by the choices we make
in our daily lives. She inspires us to action with every breath and
believes in the goodness that comes with community engagement,
working together and knowing each other. She listens and then uses
her voice for those who can't, and then teaches them how to use their own."
The evening was filled with glowing tributes to Huerta from former
Obama Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones and actors Ed Begley, Jr., Alfre
Woodard and Benjamin Bratt. Martin Sheen took the stage with Huerta,
herself, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa:
It was fitting that a tribute to so powerful a Latina leader should
have three powerful Latina leaders there to pay her homage. L.A.
County Supervisor, Gloria Molina, honored Huerta, as did labor leader
Maria Elena Durazo and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who introduced a
video presentation from President Obama expressing his appreciation
for Ms. Huerta and wishing her a happy birthday.
In the hospitality room, I caught up with long time Huerta friend,
Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, who's been heroic in his efforts
to thwart the implementation of Arizona's harsh immigration bill,
SB1070. Grijalva expressed his admiration for his friend, and
lamented that not enough people in America had heeded Huerta's
wisdom. (Excuse the poor audio and ambient sounds. The transcript
follows the video):
"Dolores Huerta is the biggest missed opportunity for this nation
we've ever seen. She's helped change it. She's helped lead it. She's
80 years old and she continues to be part of this American legacy.
I'm just disappointed that as a consequence of all this, we haven't
listened to her. I happen to be very fortunate. She's my friend.
She's helped me. I love her to death. But I think the rest of America
is missing an opportunity to understand and to believe in a person
that is much bigger than the rest of us. When people look back on
history, she'll be part of it. When people look at icons, she's gonna
be part of it. When people look at feminism, she's gonna be part of
it. When people look at working people, she's gonna be part of it.
When people look at Latinos and Latinas she's gonna be part of it.
And what a full and grateful life she's lived. I'm just - I really love her."
In the amphitheater, the celebration rocked on. Performers Kayla
Martin, Lila Downs, Zach de la Rocha and Huerta's youngest son, Rick
Chavez, were stupendous. The evening also had the distinction of
reuniting genius guitarist, musical innovator and human rights
activist, Carlos Santana, with percussionist extraordinaire, Pete
Escovedo, for the first time since 1972 when they recorded and toured
together. The reunion was spectacular and the two never missed a
beat. Escovedo's rhythms and Santana's riffs melded beautifully.
Santana was magnificent, taking the audience on a musical journey
through rarefied hits and musical magic only he can perform. He's the
master of his craft, and in my eyes, everyone else is an apprentice.
He remains a unique and unparalleled artist - admittedly my personal
favorite for over 40 years.
In 1972 while organizing the farm workers, Huerta and Chavez coined
the term si se puede!, which remained mostly within the Latino civil
rights and workers' rights arenas for years. Steadily, over recent
decades, si se puede has emerged as the clarion call to action for
progressives - transcending race, ethnicity and cause.
On the occasion of Ms. Huerta's 80th birthday, as her family,
friends, colleagues, mentees and admirers celebrate her milestone
atop the Hollywood Hills, we would all be wise to heed her
declaration of commitment:
"... I'm committing the rest of my life, as I have all of my adult
life, to organizing, because I do believe that we do have the power.
Democracy can only work if the people take power."
Si se puede, Dolores!! Organize!!
On a personal note, here's a 2 year old photo of Diane Guthman
Cancino (daughter of the late Ed Guthman, Pulitzer Prize winning
journalist and Press Secretary to Bobby Kennedy, who's known Dolores
her whole life and who attended the concert with members of the
Guthman family), seated beside me and the incomparable Dolores Huerta
(left to right).
I've admired Dolores Huerta my entire adult life. She's been a
powerful force for women and a powerful force for workers. I thank
her from the bottom of my heart for the incredible work she does. I
echo the sentiments of Congressman Grijalva that Dolores Huerta is an
integral part of America's legacy. America and Americans are better
because of her.
Organize! We need to heed her call!!
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