Tag Archives: United Farm Workers

Ellen Ochoa to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

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Ellen Ochoa has earned a special presidential honor…

The 65-year-old Mexican American engineer, former NASA astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center is among the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Ellen Ochoa,The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor. The White House last held a ceremony in July 2022.

In 1993, Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012. She was the first Hispanic director and the second female director of Johnson Space Center.

But Ochoa isn’t the only Hispanic person recognized this year.

Teresa Romero is also being honored.

The Mexican immigrant and activist is the president of the United Farm Workers and the first Latina to become president of a national union in the United States.

She has secured key victories to improve the lives of the workers who feed and fuel our nation.

Other honorees include Phil Donahue, Michelle Yeoh, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), former Vice President Al Gore, former Secretary of State John Kerry and former senator Elizabeth Dole. Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, also will be honored.

Others on the list include Clarence B. Jones, the civil rights activist and lawyer who helped draft Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech; swimmer Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky; educator and activist Opal Lee; astronomer Jane Rigby; and LGBT activist Judy Shepard.

Being honored posthumously will be Medgar Evers, former senator Frank Lautenberg and multi-sports legend Jim Thorpe.

Dolores Huerta to Be Honored at This Year’s Girl Up #GirlHero Awards

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Dolores Huerta is living legend in the Latino community… And, now she’s being heralded as a girl hero.

The 90-year-old Mexican American labor leader and civil rights activist, who co-founded the National Farmworkers Association (which later became the United Farm Workers) with Cesar Chavez, will be one of the honorees at this year’s Girl Up #GirlHero Awards.

Dolores Huerta

Huerta, television super-producer Shonda Rhimes, #metoo and Founder Tarana Burke for their work on gender equality at its third annual ceremony, which will take place on International Day of the Girl.

The virtual event will take place online on Thursday, October 29 at 12:00 pm ET with Girl Up Champion Nigel Barker as co-host.

In addition, Girl Up executive director Melissa Kilby will highlight Girl Up’s Gen Z leaders fighting for change while special guests will make appearances on the event’s virtual red carpet.

“Today we’re celebrating gender equality giants, at a time when there’s a lot at stake for girls and women,” said Kilby. “We’re honored to stand with them in building a brighter, more equal movement by relentlessly showing that girls are and have always been leading us toward a better future.”

The awards will honor lifelong civil rights advocate Huerta, who models how standing for a cause can change the world. Rhimes will be honored for her work as a storyteller that explores the most relevant topics of our time, reflecting the world as we know it onscreen with dynamic characters; and Burke who founded #metoo, a movement that kicked off a worldwide wave of women taking a stand against violence and discrimination.

The honorees will participate in conversations with Girl Up’s own girl changemakers Ina Bhoopalam, Alliyah Logan, and Rym Badran as they share their work for gender equality.

The one-on-one conversations will highlight advocates, allies, and activists shaking up accepted norms and changing the trajectory of global gender equality over the course of their lifetime.

Honorees of last year’s #GirlHero Awards in Los Angeles were Cara Delevingne, Jameela Jamil and Kate Hudson.

Stephanie McMahon, Pamella Roland, LaVerne Council, Amanda Fata, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Michelle King, Alexandra Trustman, Shaun Robinson, Tracy Shaffer and Chantelle Siegel will serve as this year’s co-chairs of the event.

Huerta to Speak at the Chelsea Handler-Organized Women’s March on Main

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Dolores Huerta has been given her marching orders…

The 86-year-old Latina labor leader and civil rights activist is set to speak at the Chelsea Handler-organized Women’s March on Main, an event taking place Saturday in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival.

Dolores Huerta 

The march will coincide with post-inauguration marches being held nationwide including the March on Washington.

In addition to Huerta, the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW), the list of speakers for the Park City event includes Aisha Tyler, Connie Britton, Mary McCormack, Benjamin Bratt, Laurie David, Jessica Williams, Maria Bello and local officials including Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski. Handler is an organizing committee member.

The event, which is not affiliated with the festival, will start at 9:00 am local time at 220 Main St.

Handler announced plans for the march earlier this month. The march is set for two hours, usually before Park City really begins stirring during the festival. But just in case, the city has set up a text-messaging system for updates on transit, traffic and road closures.

Luna’s Cesar Chavez Biopic to Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival

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Diego Luna’s latest directorial effort is set to premiere in Germany…

The 34-year-old Mexican actor/director’s biopic Cesar Chavez: An American Hero will have its world premiere next month at the Berlin International Film Festival, according to the movie’s production company.

Diego Luna

The film about Latino icon Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) will be entered into the festival’s official program in the Berlinale Special section, which presents recent works by contemporary directors, as well as cinematic portraits of renowned personalities, Canana Films, which Luna co-owns with fellow Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, said in a statement.

The cast of the biopic is led by Michael Peña, who portrays the late migrant farmworkers’ leader and civil rights activist.

Michael Pena as Cesar Chavez

Golden Globe winning actress America Ferrera portrays Chavez’s wife, while Rosario Dawson plays Dolores Huerta, Chavez’s partner in founding the National Farmworkers Association (later renamed to the United Farm Workers).

“Cesar Chavez represents the largest non-violent protest movement in U.S. history; his goal was to achieve basic human rights for the more than 50,000 farm workers in California,” said the production company’s statement.

“We think the film will send the message that change is in our hands. Chavez did something that everyone thought was impossible with courage that inspired an entire nation.”

Cesar Chavez, which will hit U.S. theaters on March 28 and arrive in Mexico on May 2, was filmed in the United States and the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

It marks Luna’s second foray into directing, after his hit 2010 comedy/drama Abel.

Obama Awards Huerta the Medal of Freedom

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She’s a political and cultural icon in Latino community… And, now Dolores Huerta is the recipient of the nation’s highest civilian honor.

President Barack Obama presented the 82-year-old Mexican American labor leader and civil rights activist with the Medal of Freedom on Tuesday at a special ceremony at the White House.

Dolores Huerta

Huerta—one of 14 recipients of the award this year, including novelist Toni Morrison, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low—co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with César Chávez. It later became the United Farm Workers (UFW).

“I’m deeply gratified in receiving the Medal of Freedom. The freedom of association means that people can come together in organization to fight for solutions to the problems they confront in their communities. The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action,” said Huerta about receiving the honor and her experience as a civil rights leader. “It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women’s movement, the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights. I thank President Obama for raising the importance of organizing to the highest level of merit and honor. It is a unique honor and privilege to be included in this group of distinguished individuals being honored here today and the communities they represent.”

Dolores Huerta

Huerta’s sense of justice developed from an early age. Raised in Stockton, Calif., Huerta watched her father work for little pay in the fields, while her mother managed a hotel that often let poor migrants stay for free, according to the Daily Beast.

Using strikes, marches, boycotts and hunger strikes, the UFW has defended the interests of farm workers, including many immigrants, and pressured businesses to sign collectively bargained contracts. The union’s tactics often met resistance. Huerta has been arrested 22 times and been beaten for her activism.

Despite her run-ins with the law, Huerta has been influential in passing far-reaching legislation. Her accomplishments as a labor rights activist include helping pass California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 and helping secure disability insurance for California farmworkers.

Today, the UWF boasts 27,000 members, powerful political allies, and is active in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.

Huerta’s special award— presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the national interests of the United States—comes just two weeks after the farm workers union celebrated its 50th anniversary.

In 2002, Huerta launched the Dolores Huerta Foundation with the mission of supporting community organizers and budding political leaders.