South Bay residents recall Dolores Huerta's impact and reflect on her legacy

On Wednesday, the world learned of the death of civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, the farmworker advocate who spent a lot of time in the South Bay developing relationships, both business and personal. Even late in life, she served as an inspiration to generations of people.

Born in New Mexico, Huerta moved to California at an early age and began working for farmworkers' labor rights as a young woman. She co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Cesar Chavez, and though she did much of the daily organization, it was Chavez who got the praise, often leaving Huerta in the background. Nertheless, she became well known in political circles; on June 5, 1968, Huerta was alongside Bobby Kennedy the night he won the presidential primary in California.

"...and Dolores Huerta, who is an old friend of mine and has worked with the union, we thank her and tell her how much I appreciate her coming tonight," Kennedy told the ballroom crowd at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Minutes later, Kennedy was shot by an assassin and died the next day.

But Huerta continued her political lobbying, including approaching a young San Jose councilmember Dave Cortese, now a state Senator, about creating an immigrants' rights march.

"She said, 'I need that to happen in San Jose, and I need someone to lead the effort, and that's going to be you?'" remembered Cortese.  "I said okay. And then I said, 'How did you do that?' She says, 'What?'  I said, 'How'd you just get me to say, okay?'"

It was like that for presidents, too. In 2012, she was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom byf President Obama, who admitted that he stole his "Yes, We Can" campaign slogan from Huerta's famous "Si, se puede!" rallying cry.

"Well, when I met the president, he did say that to me. He said, 'I took your line,'" Huerta said back in 2014.  "And I said, 'Yes, you did.'"

Mr. Obama owned up to the larceny. "I'm pleased that she let me off easy," Obama recalled. "Because Dolores does not play!"

Her passing will leave a big hole for many. Jorge Reyes Salinas is communications director with Equality California, an LGBTQ advocacy group for which Huerta served as a board member. He said the respect she garnered served as a bridge between generations, helping his parents to be more accepting of him.

"Seeing someone that speaks on your behalf and your community, while also represents your parents' community or your parents' background, right?" he said. "So, it's really combining those worlds and showing that equality has no boundaries."

But perhaps more than anyone, she served as an inspiration to young Latino women, including Gabby Chavez, executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley.

"We're told to be quiet or stay calm. She told us to do the exact opposite. Get upset, get mad, get loud for what you believe in," said Chavez. "And so, she gave us permission to do that. And so, I think about her planting the seeds in so many of us, even culturally. She went against this grain of what is expected of young Latinas or Latinas coming up."

But then the world learned of the sexual assaults Huerta suffered by Cesar Chavez. She kept the secret for most of her life, putting the welfare of the farmworker movement ahead of her own trauma. Gabby Chavez (no relation to Cesar Chavez) said as terrible as the news was, she's glad Huerta stopped putting others before herself and spoke the truth while she was still alive.

"It doesn't surprise me that toward the end she decided to make it about her in that moment," Chavez said. "But again, I think the impact was a collective one, and one that we all felt. So, I was really proud of her, if that was even possible to be even more proud of this woman."

Cortese said Huerta could easily have been the face of the farmworker movement but, at the time, no one would have accepted a woman in that role. He thinks her stature will only increase with time, and that she will be remembered not just as a farmworker rights icon, but a feminist icon as well.

Unlike Cesar Chavez, who took on a bigger-than-life persona, Huerta's legacy seems secure. Not because she was some perfect hero figure, but because she showed how human she was with every passing day.