Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bogebam here. More than fifty years ago,
Speaker 1: a determined young woman stepped up and created the iconic
Speaker 1: slogan see see which is Spanish four yes we can
Speaker 1: that would lift up the voices of the voiceless and
Speaker 1: change the state of labor as we know it in
Speaker 1: the United States. That woman, civil rights activist, Dolores Puerta,
Speaker 1: would go on to co found the National farm Workers
Speaker 1: Association with Caesar Chavas in the nineteen sixties. During her
Speaker 1: nearly forty years of work with that organization, Querta helped
Speaker 1: launch the first farm workers strike in the country, which
Speaker 1: kick started the fight for union rights and labor organizing
Speaker 1: in the agricultural sector in the US and changed the
Speaker 1: lives of farm workers forever. Querta was born on April
Speaker 1: tenth of nineteen thirty in the town of Dawson, New Mexico.
Speaker 1: That She was one of three children, and their parents
Speaker 1: were activists. Her family had been in the US for
Speaker 1: five generations, and her great grandfather fought in the Civil War.
Speaker 1: Her father was a minor farm worker and union leader
Speaker 1: who later went into state politics after her parents divorce,
Speaker 1: Jortha moved with her mother to Stockton, California, where they've
Speaker 1: lived in a community of Mexican, Filipino, and Japanese Americans.
Speaker 1: According to the book Dolores Quortha Get to Know the
Speaker 1: Voice of Migrant Workers, Porto was a talkative, inquisitive young girl,
Speaker 1: and her grandfather nicknamed her cithe linguas Spanish for seven
Speaker 1: tongues for the article this episode is based on How
Speaker 1: Stuff Work. Spoke by email with Mario Garcia, author of
Speaker 1: a Dolores Worth the Reader. He said, when her family
Speaker 1: moved from New Mexico to Stockton, California, her brothers had
Speaker 1: to work in the fields, and Jorta, as a teenager,
Speaker 1: also wanted to join them. However, her mother forbade this
Speaker 1: because she did not want her daughter to work in
Speaker 1: the fields. Querta's mother did permit her daughter to work
Speaker 1: in industrial packing sheds, where the working conditions weren't much better.
Speaker 1: Garcia said, I think this early exposure to the harsh
Speaker 1: working conditions of farm workers provided a context for Dolores
Speaker 1: later working to organize these workers to do away with
Speaker 1: the more exploitative aspects of farm labor. After graduating. Hrtha married,
Speaker 1: had two children and began teaching elementary school. Many of
Speaker 1: the students were the children of impoverished farm workers and
Speaker 1: came to school hungry or missing essential items like shoes.
Speaker 1: Hostas Works also spoke by email with Sarah Warren, author
Speaker 1: of the book Dolores Querta, A Hero to Migrant Workers.
Speaker 1: She said that Whetha quote was driven to do more
Speaker 1: for the children she planned to serve when she found
Speaker 1: out how their families were being abused. At age five,
Speaker 1: Huerta became immersed in activism, joining a local group run
Speaker 1: by Fred Ross and learning how to become a labor organizer.
Speaker 1: Garcia said as a young adult, she became involved with
Speaker 1: the Community Service Organization or CSO, which was an organization
Speaker 1: mobilizing Mexican Americans in civil rights work and voter registration
Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifties. At the CSO, Quarte met Cesar Chavez,
Speaker 1: who would go on to become one of the most
Speaker 1: widely recognized Mexican American labor leaders in US history. Quarta
Speaker 1: and Chavez began to work together for improved working conditions
Speaker 1: and wages for farm workers who earned as little as
Speaker 1: seventy cents an hour at the time. Garcia said, Cesar
Speaker 1: recognized Dolores's talents as an organizer plus her own personal strength,
Speaker 1: and so when he began to organize in the fields
Speaker 1: by nineteen sixty two, he recruited Dolores to work with him,
Speaker 1: and together, Chaves and Puerta founded the National farm Workers
Speaker 1: Association in nineteen sixty two, which later became the United
Speaker 1: farm Workers Union. Quarta remained vice president of the United
Speaker 1: farm Workers until Chaves and Puerta had a complex relationship,
Speaker 1: according to scholars. From one point of view, they were
Speaker 1: comrades in the fields, working for better conditions for the
Speaker 1: most marginalized workers in society. Hostuff Works also spoke by
Speaker 1: email with Monica Brown, author of Side by Side The
Speaker 1: Story of Dolores Puerta and Cesar Chavez. She said, as
Speaker 1: Dolores once told me they were comrades. They spoke to
Speaker 1: farm workers on the backs of flatbed trucks. Garcia said,
Speaker 1: Dolores saw herself as equal to Cesar, and he accepted this.
Speaker 1: Caesar didn't always agree with Dolores, but he learned from
Speaker 1: her as she was one of the few persons in
Speaker 1: the union who was not afraid to criticize the CESAR,
Speaker 1: which he appreciated. Wuerta and Chavez became most well known
Speaker 1: for organizing the nineteen sixty five Delano Grape Strike and boycott.
Speaker 1: Striking Filipino grape farm workers sought the help of the
Speaker 1: emerging National farm Workers Association, which largely represented Latino workers
Speaker 1: at the time. Ahuerta marched along with Chavez for workers rights,
Speaker 1: brought together the Filipino and Latino workers on the picket line,
Speaker 1: and led a nationwide boycott of non union table grapes
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy. Their steadfast organized being paid off, resulting
Speaker 1: in union contracts as well as better wages and working
Speaker 1: conditions for the grape workers. How staff Works also spoke
Speaker 1: with Stacy Soward's author of c a Puite the rhetorical
Speaker 1: legacy of dolors Wertha and the United farm Workers. She
Speaker 1: said dolors Porta played a big role in getting farm
Speaker 1: workers to participate in union activities, to boycott grapes and
Speaker 1: other produce, to pickut farms, and become members of the union.
Speaker 1: In President Barack Obama awarded Quarta the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
Speaker 1: recognizing her, not Chavez, as the original source of the
Speaker 1: phrase see s poe. Obama famously appropriated the slogan for
Speaker 1: his own presidential campaign, but Querta's rallying cry had been
Speaker 1: used for years to organize farm workers and inspire advocacy
Speaker 1: for other civil rights issues. Brown said Dolores Wortha first
Speaker 1: spoke the famous words see se poe while speaking to
Speaker 1: a group of workers who kept saying, we can't organize
Speaker 1: the workers here. We can't. Dolores responded, see see yes
Speaker 1: you can. Quarta became an iconic activist and a source
Speaker 1: of pride from Mexican Americans and others within the Latin
Speaker 1: American community. Her organizing helped bring about the Immigration Reform
Speaker 1: and Control Act, which granted amnesty to one point three
Speaker 1: million undocumented workers. Quarta is approaching her ninety second birthday
Speaker 1: this April of two, and remains active on the front
Speaker 1: lines as a civil rights advocate and labor organizer. She
Speaker 1: holds media events and hosts TED talks on how to
Speaker 1: speak out and become empowered through activism. Soward said her
Speaker 1: legacy today is that she's become a social movement icon.
Speaker 1: She's demonstrated how one moves from individual action and concern
Speaker 1: for community to working with other people on those issues
Speaker 1: to creating an entire social movement. A Quarta also founded
Speaker 1: the Dolores Puerta Foundation in two thousand three. The nonprofit
Speaker 1: focuses on empowering and training grassroots organizers in lower income
Speaker 1: and disenfranchised communities in California, including work on lgbt q
Speaker 1: i A issues. Although farm workers have more collective bargaining
Speaker 1: opportunities as a result of quart Does work, they still
Speaker 1: experience widespread exploitation, harsh working conditions, and wage theft. In
Speaker 1: recent years, Quortha has been vocal in pushing for immigration
Speaker 1: reform to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants,
Speaker 1: who constitute a large share of farm workers in the
Speaker 1: United States. Moreover, Quorta continues to boost the civic power
Speaker 1: of the Latin American community, specifically through efforts to turn
Speaker 1: out the vote. The community played an important role in
Speaker 1: the election, turning out in record numbers. Soward said she's
Speaker 1: been very active and registering people to vote and getting
Speaker 1: people to the polls. Her foundation works to get people
Speaker 1: more involved beyond voting, such as organizing voters to vote,
Speaker 1: but also to participate more fully on social justice issues
Speaker 1: in their communities. Garcias said her legacy of taking on
Speaker 1: issues of social justice not only in the fields, but
Speaker 1: in the fight for women's rights, civil rights, voting rights,
Speaker 1: and for world peace are all part of her legacy.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article Dolor's Bertha the
Speaker 1: labor activists behind the slogan sees on how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot Com, written by Terry R. Lagata A brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
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