Dolores Huerta Quotes

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.

The first time when I was organizing, I went out and started knocking on doors to see if people were registered to vote. I was a door knocker. I didn't even have the confidence that I could register people, so I just was out there door knocking. That was my first experience.

We criticize and separate ourselves from the process. We've got to jump right in there with both feet.

Our society is connecting workers with the products people consume and recognizing workers for their contributions. It is important to do that, and to have organized labor - a middle class - to preserve our democracy.

Gloria Steinem in the women's movement. Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority. There are all of these great wonderful women I've met that are so inspirational.

I think, if anything, my children are the ones who have sacrificed because I've had to too many times be absent from them. But, at the same time, they have lived very enriched lives and probably experienced things they wouldn't have if not for the movements. So, there are some rewards.

Once you see the outcomes and the results, and you see how many people are helped and benefitting, you want to keep on doing it because it's so simple.

If you don't know, your labor unions and community organizations, there's somebody you can ask to guide you. A lot of people, especially in the Latino community, they have this big ballot and all these names and propositions on it, and they say 'Oh my God'. They don't know which of these to vote for, so they don't vote.

People can take power over their communities and over their lives. Some people don't realize they can do that. They think 'It's OK for other people, but I myself can't do it.' Hopefully, that will come out of the film.

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.

We just have to convince other people that they have power. This is what they can do by participating to make change, not only in their community, but many times changing in their own lives. Once they participate, they get their sense of power.

We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for.

How do I stop eleven million people from buying the grape?

If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?

When you talk about sacrifices, the ones in my family who have sacrificed are my children, because I love what I'm doing. I love the work. I love to go out there and talk about organizing the people. To me, that's something I really enjoy.

When you have a conflict, that means that there are truths that have to be addressed on each side of the conflict. And when you have a conflict, then it's an educational process to try to resolve the conflict. And to resolve that, you have to get people on both sides of the conflict involved so that they can dialogue.

The majority of Latinos in this country are 28 years old or younger. All of those people out there attacking the Latino community, when you see a Latino going down the street with a baby carriage and a couple of children walking beside them, they should say 'Hey, there goes my social security and my Medicare.' Those are the people that are going to contribute to keep our social security system funded and our medical system funded.

When a group of people get together, it's collective power. You know that you're doing it for the good.

We know we only have about half of our population that's voting.

When you choose to give up your time and resources to participate in community work, that's what makes a leader.

Leadership is a choice one makes.

I'm glad that the fact that people are still getting poisoned by pesticide drift is gaining attention.

The thing about nonviolence is that it spreads. When you get people to participate in nonviolent action - whether it's a fast, a march, a boycott, or a picket line - people hear you, people see you, people are learning from that action.