Dolores Huerta Quotes

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

My kids have lived experiences that could have never been duplicated otherwise. That's one thing about people who get involved in activism, you live so many experiences that otherwise they wouldn't be there. This is why peoples' lives are so enriched.

Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk.

I was very fortunate to have known Fred Ross Sr., who was organizing the Community Service Organization (CSO) way back in the late 50's and early 60's. I was able to work with him.

I had been a Girl Scout from the time I was 8 to the time I was 18 years old. I had belonged to my church organization and youth groups. But, you never really found a way that you could make a change.

Every minute a chance to change the world.

We as women should shine light on our accomplishments and not feel egotistical when we do. It's a way to let the world know that we as women can accomplish great things!

As we've focused more on our food and where it comes from, people now have greater awareness of what's being put onto our food, pesticides, labeling issues, and consumer health.

I quit because I can’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.

We can't let people drive wedges between us... because there's only one human race.

Don't be a marshmallow. Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk. Stop being vegetables. Work for Justice. Viva the boycott!

As a youngster and being a Latina, you see so much injustice.

Giving kids clothes and food is one thing, but it's much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people.

My son, Emilio Huerta, is running for congress. He was a young man who was marching and picketing.

Every single day we sit down to eat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and at our table we have food that was planted, picked, or harvested by a farm worker. Why is it that the people who do the most sacred work in our nation are the most oppressed, the most exploited?

Sometimes, we have to promote ourselves. Just go out and be very active about trying to find an opportunity.

I say that now we see a lot of hateful rhetoric against Mexicans and the Latino community, but we have a very powerful weapon. And that is our vote. This is the way we can get even with all of the politicians who are insulting us and saying terrible things about our community - by voting them out. And get the good ones. Vote them in.

I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.

The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women's movement, and the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights.

Of course, we have leaders in the African American community as well that we've all worked with. One of the great rewards of being an activist is that you get to meet all these wonderful people. And there are many unsung heroes. There are so many out there that are good people that are working hard.

Employers able to work together with workers and sharing gains and profits will lead to a much better world, getting away from income inequality.

If we don't have workers organized into labor unions, we're in great peril of losing our democracy.

We have to get back down to basics. We have to start organizing at the neighborhood level to get people educated to vote.

Once I learned about grassroots organizing, I got so enamored with it because I thought 'Wow this is the way you do it!'

I call myself an addicted organizer.

There's just so many facets, I think, of the ignorance in our society that have to be corrected if we're really going to have a democratic society and a society that is just and that respects all of the members of this society regardless of who they are, what color they may be, what sexual orientation that they have or what gender, you know, they happen to be.

The racist rhetoric from politicians is inspiring people to organize, as more people see what happens by not getting active.

In fact, the corporations are driving out the competition and it is not getting better, especially when they are not paying income taxes. Thank goodness for the social media out there, because we sure can't count on the corporate media to get the word out.

If we can just convince other people to get involved, this could make some major changes in our society. It's very exhilarating.

Going door to door and talking to people, convincing them to vote - this is what I call Organizing 101.

We have to convince people that they have the power to elect people. The people they are electing are the ones making the decisions about how our tax dollars are going to be spent. Is it going to be for more jails, or for more schools? For more house services? It's very important that people understand that, do their research and find out who to vote for.

People would say 'Who is a leader?' A leader is a person that does the work. It's very simple. It's a personal choice for people who choose to put in their time and their commitment to do the work. It's a personal choice.

That's the history of the world. His story is told, hers isn't.

I am happy to see that, increasingly, people care about farm workers. There is tremendous interest in where and how our food is grown.

It's important to realize that we all need to work together. With Weaving Movements, we are all interdependent and we all have to work together. If we could just realize that and understand that, we'll keep our country strong.

My mother was a dominant force in our family. And that was great for me as a young woman, because I never saw that women had to be dominated by men.

As organizations, we have to find ways to create more opportunities, especially for our young people. A lot of corporations, they have to make opportunities for young people - create internships, for example, even if it's only half-time.

Exercise your right to vote.

Among our people, theres not any question about women being strong -- even stronger than men -- they work in the fields right along with the men. When your survival is at stake, you dont have these questions about yourself like middle -- class women do.

Why is it that farmworkers feed the nation but they can't get food stamps?

You could really belong to a group of people and with other people, you could really make some significant changes - through the electoral process, of course, by registering people to vote, and by supporting good people who were running for office. For me, it was like I had found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

We need to keep ringing the bell, wake people up to get our democracy together. Farm workers are like a symbol, and it is good that people are paying attention.

I hope people become inspired to become active in their community. That's the important thing.

Honor the hands that harvest your crops.

Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth...

I want to say to mothers out there, you know, take your children to marches. Take them to meetings because this is a way that they can become strong, and they understand what politics is all about because they are actually living it.

A women's place in history has never been given the attention that it needs to be given, and that's why we have a lot of the misogyny in our society today.

My children grew up very resourceful and strong in spite of them having to live with different families and that I had to drag them all over the country with me.