Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta is returning to her hometown of Stockton to speak at San Joaquin Delta College.
“It’s such an honor to have Dolores Huerta here with us. She’s a living legend, and for our students and community to hear directly from someone who’s shaped history—it’s powerful,” said Daniel Fernandez, Puente Program co-coordinator, and professor at Delta College, on Friday via email. “Her visit reminds us that our voices matter and that ordinary people from our own community can create extraordinary change.”
Huerta is a San Joaquin Delta College alumna who graduated from the school when it was called Stockton College.
“Hearing from Dolores will really push people to reflect on their own role in creating change. She shows us that we can’t just sit on the sidelines, our students and community have the power to get involved, to advocate, and to lead,” Fernandez said. “For many of our students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, it’s also an affirmation that their stories and leadership matter.”
Huerta is expected to share her personal story of how she became an organizer and why the fight for social change continues.
At 95 years old, Huerta is still fighting the fight. Huerta’s Thursday stop in Stockton “will challenge and inspire our students, faculty, staff, and community members to embrace activism, civic engagement, and unity as tools for building a more just and equitable future,” Delta College said in promoting the speaking engagement on its website.
“Her message is as important now as it’s ever been. We’re living in a time of division and ongoing struggles for labor rights, immigration, gender equity, and racial justice,” Fernandez said. “Dolores’s call to action ‘sí, se puede’ is exactly what students and our community need to hear right now.”
Huerta popularized the phrase and spoke about its empowering effect during a visit at the University of the Pacific three years ago, on Sept. 29, 2022.
‘Inspiring the next generation’
Born Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico.
After her parents divorced, her mother moved to Stockton, bringing 6-year-old Dolores and Dolores’ siblings with her. The family lived south of Harding Way in a “culturally diverse neighborhood,” Delta College said on its website.
Huerta co-founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO) and the Agricultural Workers Association before co-founding with Cesar Chavez, the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW).
The longtime labor worker activist in 2012 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. In the same year, she was also inducted into the U.S. Department of Labor Hall of Honor.
The last time she spoke at Delta College was 2018. The trustees followed up later that year by renaming the school’s plaza in her honor.
“Think of yourselves as the gardeners who are going to go out and sow the seeds of justice,” Huerta said in February 2018 during her appearance. “And those seeds are going to flower and the spring is going to come back. But we know we have to go out there and do all the work.”
Six years ago, Huerta was arrested in Fresno at the age of 89 years old for protesting during a Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting “over pay for workers who care for the elderly and disabled.” Huerta and five other people were arrested for allegedly failing to disperse when told to do so, the Visalia Times-Delta reported.
“All of these supervisors make over $100,000 a year, while these people have gone without a wage increase for 11 years, and it’s time. Que es tiempo. If supervisors can’t take the heat, they should get out of the kitchen,” Huerta told reporters in 2019.
The Dolores Huerta Foundation “advocates for social justice, focusing on empowering marginalized communities through grassroots organizing, civic engagement, and education initiatives.”
“Together, we’re working to empower students, celebrate culture, and advance equity on campus,” Fernandez said. “Bringing Dolores here is about more than honoring her legacy, it’s about inspiring the next generation to keep moving forward with courage and compassion.”
If you go
What: Voices of Change: Dolores Huerta Speaks to the Next Generation
When: Noon, Thursday, Sept. 25
Where: Delta College’s Warren Atherton Auditorium, 5151 Pacific Ave. in Stockton
About the event: The Dolores Huerta event is sponsored by San Joaquin Delta College’s Puente Program, the Chicanx Latine Faculty (CLF), and the Cultural Awareness Program (CAP). It is free and open to the community. Those attending can purchase a daily parking permit for $2, Delta College said. These can be purchased at the gray Parkeon permit dispensers across most parking lots.
To learn more about the “Voices of Change: Dolores Huerta Speaks to the Next Generation” event or about other events at San Joaquin Delta College, visit deltacollege.edu.
Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers business and community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. To support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: ‘Inspiring the next generation’: Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta to speak at San Joaquin Delta College
Reporting by Angelaydet Rocha, The Stockton Record / The Record
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