Transcription
[Music] I think I kind of grew up being an activist. My mother was always pushing me to get out there. Many people preferred to put a crook in the White House rather than to have a brown person or a black person live in their neighborhood. I guess when I speak I do get passionate.
>> Down with racism.
Sometimes I ruffle people's feathers.
>> Now with sexism.
And so I guess that's why they describe me as fiery.
>> You're welcome.
I came to know Dolores because of the farm workers movement.
>> She's still as energetic and as determined as she ever was
and of course organized me along with everyone else she touched. She is one of the most inspiring people you ever want to know.
>> If what you believe is not costly, you're left to question its value.
And so whenever I'm associated with anything to do with Dolores, I know it's going to cost me
and it's valuable. Yes, we can. Dolores was very gracious when I told her I had stolen her slogan. Knowing her, I'm pleased that she let me off easy.
[Music] We are now experiencing the coming to the surface of a triple prong sickness that has been lurking within our body politic from its very beginning.
>> Dr. King's quote about racism being a sickness in our society is so appropriate because it's so ingrained in our culture. Racism comes from slavery and slavery means that individuals should use their entire lives energy and work to make other people rich. This is what happened with farm workers. Farm workers have mostly been people of color. that somehow justifies the fact that the farm workers were not given toilets in the fields. They had to work from sun up to sun down. This is the legacy of slavery and something had to change.
>> How much have you been getting for a day's work?
>> Only $2.
>> $2 a day?
>> Yeah. It's not cleaning up because as I said, I was working two cents of I didn't make enough.
I used to work for the sheriff's department in San King County, Stockton, California, and they hired me because I was bilingual and uh I had to interview these farm workers and it it was a very painful process to see to see all these poor people that went through through the line there. When I went to a farm go home once, there was only a dirt floor. The furniture that they had were orange crates and cardboard boxes and this was all that they could afford. Knowing how hard they worked as farm workers, that really, you know, made me very, very determined that I had to do something to help the families. I had the good fortune of learning how to organize from Fred Ross senior. Fred Ross was a person who had been a teacher and he actually helped the Japanese when they were putting them into internment camps. And so Fred Ross was hired to go into Orange County to desegregate the school. Most of the people that he had to organize were farm workers. I fully support the lettuce boycott. Since uh Mr. Chavez is fasting totally, the least I can do is to give up eating lettuce, and I urge my supporters to do the same. I think that all of us are looking for a place under the sun.
>> Fred Ross kept telling us about this great organizer, Cesar Chavez, and that was the first time that we got to meet him. however strong they may be and however rich they may be that if we the farm workers do not till the soil and plant the seed and harvest the food they would not be able to eat and he said to me you know farm workers will never have a union unless you and I do it and at first I thought he was kidding I actually started laughing no he said I'm very serious that was the beginning of the United Farm Workers
>> our job is not to go out there and save the farm workers our job is to go out there and help the farm workers defend themselves, teach them how to organize, to teach them how to fight.
>> What do you think of the idea of a union for farm workers? I think it's ridiculous.
>> The workers are on the rise. There will be strikes all over the state.
[Music] If the rules to settle our economic problems are not forthcoming, we will call a general strike to paralyze the state's agricultural economy. So when we had that first strike, we struck like for a 125 an hour, something very, very small. But the main thing is that we were trying to get recognition, trying to get the contract so the workers could sit down and negotiate their wages.
>> Come on up, buddies. We are waiting for you.
We knew we needed to do something else. And so we started our first boycott. We targeted one of the major grape companies that hired farmers would pick it in front of the stores.
>> What a great boycott. Well, I've classified that in the past on a number of public occasions as as immoral. And I think it is.
I remember that first day they all got arrested. And so we had to call Robert Kennedy's office for an attorney to get them out of jail. What we need is some federal legislation which will be comparable to the legislation that we passed in the 1930s for other workers in this country.
>> And the fact is that we haven't done that. The result has been that the farm workers have suffered and grown much more slowly economically than any other segment of our society.
I think everybody should go to jail at some point in time. I think because when you're in jail then you see people that are there that probably shouldn't be there. when you're in jail with somebody who got six months because they stole a loaf of bread. And I imagine now it's even worse than it was then.
She struggles for the equality of women inside the union and for the men in the union as well. Dolores Quuerta.
I had the luck of being told by someone else I knew in the movement uh that Dolores was coming to New York and she needed a place to stay. So she came and slept on my couch and of course organized me along with you know everyone else she touched.
I think the women's movement uh really gave me the inspiration. It gave me like permission not to feel that I was being egotistical by being in a leadership position, you know, to be able to put on that mantle and and say I'm a leader. People don't realize how difficult it was for her because she was a Latina, you know, and if this is a, you know, very the Latino culture is very heavily favored with the male dominance and these matters. And so she's very intimidating.
[Music] The issues over the last 25 years have been the same for pickers. Minimal wages and deplorable working and living conditions. Today the issue is pesticides.
>> Workers have been um poisoned by pesticides where they have serious illnesses. It's almost you might say an everyday working condition with farm workers. This is like our third great boycott that we did and this was about the pesticides. During that demonstration in San Francisco, people were singing song, very peaceful demonstration. Then the police moved in and they started beating people up. They uh pulverized my spleen. They never found it, just the pieces of it and I broke my ribs and uh I lost a lot of blood to the point where I almost died. Luckily, the the television reporter, she actually turned her camera when the policeman was beating me up. So, they were able to identify the police officer. There were many other people that were beaten up and including an African-American woman who was waiting for the bus. She was not even part of the demonstration and they beat her up. But I was the only one, I think, that filed the lawsuit. They settled the lawsuit for $300,000. So that is my retirement fund from the San Francisco Police Department. Dolores Werta is one of those phenomenal committed people who lives in a complete total awareness of the time and place that she lives.
>> And I don't care how difficult it seemed or how dismal or how lost the cause seemed, we've never given up. It's not a ever a a criticism if you're not on the line or you're not involved. It's an invitation. That's what she is.
I hope that my legacy will be one of an organizer that organized to fight injustice. And we want to give our children an inheritance of justice, right? Not jewels or property or money because they'll just fight over it. So the main thing to do is to give them this love for justice and and that is the greatest gift I think that any of us can have.
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