SACRAMENTO – Acting Governor Eleni Kounalakis proclaimed April 10, as Dolores Huerta Day in California to honor the civil rights icon leader on her 95th birthday.
The proclamation celebrates Huerta’s decades of advocacy for farmworkers’ rights and social justice causes throughout California and the nation.
“As we celebrate Dolores Huerta’s impactful contributions to the labor, civil rights, and women’s movements, I urge all Californians to take inspiration from her example and work to make a positive impact in our communities,” Kounalakis stated in the proclamation released April 10.
In 1962, Huerta and Cesar Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later evolved into the United Farm Workers union in partnership with Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz and other labor leaders. As a skilled negotiator and strategist, Huerta played a crucial role in securing the first farmworker union contracts and helping pass the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act.
“A powerhouse for social justice, Dolores Huerta was born on this day in 1930,” Kounalakis stated. “Her passion for fighting for the rights of workers and their families and helped pioneer a transformative farm labor movement that carries on to this day.”
Her path to becoming a labor leader began in Dawson, New Mexico, where she was born in 1930, though she spent most of her formative years in California’s Central Valley. Initially working as a schoolteacher, Huerta was deeply affected by seeing her students arrive at school hungry.
This experience motivated her to transition to community organizing, where she established the Agricultural Workers Association and led voter registration drives to address systemic inequalities.
Huerta’s accomplishments have earned numerous accolades, including becoming the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993, receiving the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998 and being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. California inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2013.
Today, through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she continues advocating for marginalized communities and training new generations of community organizers.
