Director Gregory Nava Remembers Dolores Huerta, the Civil Rights Icon Who Introduced Him to His Wife and Trusted Them With Her Life Story
Dolores Huerta, the civil rights leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers, has died aged 96. Director Gregory Nava and filmmaker Barbara Martinez Jitner paid tribute to her, describing both a close personal bond and the trust she placed in them to tell her life story.
Huerta died at home in Bakersfield, surrounded by family; a family spokesperson said she had cancer. Nava and Martinez Jitner spent more than 70 hours recording her memories and have been developing the first dramatic feature about her life for nearly three years. Huerta helped lead the 1965 Delano grape strike, popularised “Sí, se puede”, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 and disclosed in March that fellow farmworker movement leader Cesar Chavez had raped her in 1966.
In short
- Dolores Huerta has died aged 96.
- She trusted filmmakers Gregory Nava and Barbara Martinez Jitner with her life story.
- Her decades of farmworker organising reshaped the US labour movement.
Explained simply
Dolores Huerta was a Mexican-American labour organiser who worked to improve pay and conditions for farmworkers in the United States. In 1962, she co-founded the United Farm Workers with fellow organiser Cesar Chavez, and helped lead a major grape pickers’ strike in California in 1965.
Huerta became a prominent figure in the wider civil rights movement, which sought equal rights and fair treatment for people facing discrimination. Her slogan “Sí, se puede” means “Yes, it can be done”; she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the United States, in 2012.
Gregory Nava is a film director, and Barbara Martinez Jitner is a filmmaker. They recorded Huerta’s memories and have been developing a film about her life, a story that spans farmworker organising and the movement’s leaders.