Dolores Huerta, who died on October 28 at the age of 96, was an honorary chair of DSA from 2012-2016. But her involvement with our organization went back as far as being a speaker at a 1975 convention of one of DSA’s predecessor organizations. My wife, Dolores Delgado-Campbell, and I met her even earlier,when we were co-chairs of the United Farm Workers (UFW) lettuce boycott committee in Sacramento.
We entered the fray in 1972 when the corrupt leadership of the Teamsters Union signed sweetheart contracts with grape growers, committing one of the worst examples of union betrayal in U.S. history. These contracts effectively ended the grape strike of mostly Mexican American and Filipino workers that many churches and synagogues had supported. Working with Dolores and the UFW for the next decade shaped our own political and career paths and broadened our political perspectives. We paid a political cost, too.
In 1973, because of her involvement in the lettuce boycott, Dolores Campbell was not rehired (i.e., de facto fired) from her position teaching 
Women’s History and Mexican American History at American River College in Sacramento. After a seven-year struggle and assistance from her union, she regained the position and became a sought after professor.
In a satisfying footnote to history, more than 50 years after her association with Huerta and la causa made her persona non grata, she brought Huerta to a celebration of women’s history at the college in 2012. The auditorium was filled with students, faculty and staff trying to get into the room.
Dolores Huerta was a relentless bundle of spirit and energy, and it was almost impossible to say “No” to her, in large part because she always worked longer and harder than anyone else. Dolores was also a persistent supporter of DSA’s own Latino Commission (1983- 2004). She is best known for her co-founding of the United Farm Workers union with Cesar Chavez and many others including former DSA honorary chair Eliseo Medina, Philip Vera Cruz, and Larry Itleong.
Her influence has been profound. The creation of the UFW changed the nature of labor organizing in the Southwest and contributed significantly to the growth of Latino politics in the United States.Her frequent public engagements at colleges, universities, and high schools, where she brought a Latina feminist perspective to labor, civil rights, and immigration issues highlights her long history and personal commitment to movement building.
That commitment to community mobilization against corporate power produced a backlash against her. Texas even banned textbooks on U.S. history because they included her story. On the other hand, when I contributed to a popular history book for middle-school students, The Americans: A History of the United States (1970 & 1979), we included a recording Dolores made in 1968.
After leaving UFW leadership in 1994, Dolores traveled the country organizing and encouraging women to step up and take leadership roles in unions, politics, and more. She grew to become one of the leading feminist leaders in the nation focusing particularly on empowering young women and Latinas.
Dolores was raised in the Catholic faith, and her lifetime of work demonstrated her commitment to the ideals of the struggle for social justice.Her thinking evolved constantly. Earlier in her life, she was against abortion; later she was a champion of reproductive justice. Her intensive work, recognized when President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, illustrated how the fight for union rights and wages also included the fight for women’s leadership in unions, immigrant justice, and reproductive freedom.
In the last year of her life she broke a decades-long silence about being assaulted as a young woman by Cesar Chavez and spoke of the misogyny within the farmworker movement, the labor movement, and society in general.
We consider ourselves blessed to have had many opportunities to learn from Dolores and to have worked alongside her in campaigns. For more information about her lifetime of union and social justice work, read her story at In Memory of Dolores Huerta.
Author Duane Campbell, Dolores Delgado-Campbell, and Dolores Huerta in 2014.