The Latino Studies Program and La Casa Latino Cultural Center have the privilege of hosting civil rights icon Dolores Huerta in Bloomington and at IU. In conjunction with Hispanic Heritage month celebrations, this one-day event brings labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta to our campus and community. Ms. Huerta, along with Cesar Chavez, led a national boycott of Delano table grapes during the late 1960s, and co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW). Ms. Huerta was the lead negotiator in the workers’ contract created after the strike, and she coined the phrase “Si se puede!” [Yes, we can!]. Despite her many accomplishments, her contributions to the co-founding of the union, and her reputation as a master negotiator, you’ll be hard pressed to find thorough information about Ms. Huerta in many textbooks. Our goal is to remedy this erasure by remembering and celebrating her pivotal role in the civil rights movement, improving the lives of agricultural workers and, more recently, of Latinx and minority communities generally.
On behalf of the Latino Studies Program and La Casa, we invite you to attend her keynote address in the President’s Hall of Franklin Hall on September 19, 2019, at 7 pm (free and open to the public). Provost Robel will offer some opening remarks. Please share this event with your colleagues and students and encourage them to attend.
The event is also generously supported by the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity & Inclusion; College of Arts & Sciences Office of Diversity and Inclusion; the Susan D. Gubar Chair in Literature; Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Program in Race, Migration, and Ethnicity; Asian American Studies Program; Center for Research on Race, Ethnicity, and Society; and the Departments of English; Sociology; Spanish & Portuguese; American Studies; and History.
Ms. Huerta is one of the most important figures of the 20th-century civil rights movement, truly a living legend. Ms. Huerta’s visit and keynote address serve as a reminder that collective action is not only possible but vital to a thriving democracy, and that each of us can be a powerful agent in bringing about positive social change.
