Through that organization [Community Service Organization], I met Cesar Chavez. We had this common interest about farm workers. We ultimately left CSO to start the National Farm Workers Organization, which became the United Farm Workers. I was very blessed to have learned some of the skills of basic grassroots organizing from Mr. Ross and then be able to put that into practice in both CSO and the United Farm Workers.

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.

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

Especially as a teenager, I was always being racially profiled by the police. You just see all this injustice, and you want to do something about it, but you don't know how.

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.

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.

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