Dolores Huerta Quotes

Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk.

El que sabe de dolor, todo lo sabe.

A veces parece que los niños sienten menos que los adultos, pero nos equivocamos. Quizá lo expresen de manera distinta, pero su dolor es el mismo.

She hadn’t always been obsessed with babies. There was a time she believed she would change the world, lead a movement, follow Dolores Huerta and Sylvia Mendez, Ellen Ochoa and Sonia Sotomayor. Where her bisabuela had picked pecans and oranges in the orchards, climbing the tallest trees with her small girlbody, dropping the fruit to the baskets below where her tías and tíos and primos stooped to pick those that had fallen on the ground, where her abuela had sewn in the garment district in downtown Los Angeles with her bisabuela, both women taking the bus each morning and evening, making the beautiful dresses to be sold in Beverly Hills and maybe worn by a movie star, and where her mother had cared for the ill, had gone to their crumbling homes, those diabetic elderly dying in the heat in the Valley—Bianca would grow and tend to the broken world, would find where it ached and heal it, would locate its source of ugliness and make it beautiful. Only, since she’d met Gabe and become La Llorona, she’d been growing the ugliness inside her. She could sense it warping the roots from within. The cactus flower had dropped from her when she should have been having a quinceañera, blooming across the dance floor in a bright, sequined dress, not spending the night at her boyfriend’s nana’s across town so that her mama wouldn’t know what she’d done, not taking a Tylenol for the cramping and eating the caldo de rez they’d made for her. They’d taken such good care of her. Had they done it for her? Or for their son’s chance at a football scholarship? She’d never know. What she did know: She was blessed with a safe procedure. She was blessed with women to check her for bleeding. She was blessed with choice. Only, she hadn’t chosen for herself. She hadn’t. Awareness must come. And it did. Too late. If she’d chosen for herself, she would have chosen the cactus spines. She would’ve chosen the one night a year the night-blooming cereus uncoils its moon-white skirt, opens its opalescent throat, and allows the bats who’ve flown hundreds of miles with their young clutching to their fur as they swim through the air, half-starved from waiting, to drink their fill and feed their next generation of creatures who can see through the dark. She’d have been a Queen of the Night and taught her daughter to give her body to no Gabe. She knew that, deep inside. Where Anzaldúa and Castillo dwelled, where she fed on the nectar of their toughest blossoms. These truths would moonstone in her palm and she would grasp her hand shut, hold it tight to her heart, and try to carry it with her toward the front door, out onto the walkway, into the world. Until Gabe would bend her over. And call her gordita or cochina. Chubby girl. Dirty girl. She’d open her palm, and the stone had turned to dust. She swept it away on her jeans. A daughter doesn’t solve anything; she needed her mama to tell her this. But she makes the world a lot less lonely. A lot less ugly.  

Eran tres hermanos Tres almas pequeñas. Una tuvo hogar Y vida serena. Al otro tocó La mejor parcela: Vivir con Jesús Dentro de su hacienda. Pero el más pequeño Tenía una reserva; Se construyó un muro De cal y de piedra. Con cuatro paredes, Y una sola puerta. Los dos varias veces Quisimos que se abriera. La dejó cerrada Por nuestra torpeza. Cuando nos herían (Un niño es de cera, De plumas de alondra Y nubes ligeras) Yo gritaba fuerte Mi dolor y afrenta Quedando después Vacía y contenta. Mi hermano callaba Lleno de prudencia; Pero el pequeñito Se escondía afuera Mojando su llanto El muro de piedra. Los años pasaron Y el gozo y la pena Me enseñaron cosas Muy sabias y ciertas. Un hombre sensible De alma de poeta No quiere herir nunca, Ni que a él lo hieran. No volví a tratar De tocar la puerta. Pero con los años Se ha abierto una grieta Muy chiquititita Como una lenteja. Yo me asomé un día Llena de impaciencia, Pensando ver sólo Lo gris de la piedra. Por el agujero Vi una bella huerta. Hay árboles grandes Que dan sombra fresca Una bugambilia Da flores bermejas Y en la fuente clara El agua gorjea. Pero lo más bello Es ver que la piedra Triste y gris del muro Una huerta encierra Con flores y frutos Con agua y con siembra.

Pídele a casi cualquier chicana o chicano fuera de la academia que nombre a una mujer famosa de origen mexicano y probablemente vas a escuchar "Dolores Huerta". Si la persona conoce a nuestras escritoras contemporáneas, quizá mencione a "Sandra Cisneros" o "Ana Castillo". Si preguntas por un nombre de los primeros tiempos, te podrán decir Sor Juana, la monja rebelde de los mil seiscientos. Cuando trates de profundizar, la persona a tu lado tal vez va a decir, "iMe doy por vencido!, pero, bueno... ahí está la Virgen de Guadalupe, que creo, está en muchísimas camisetas. Era inevitable entonces, que la necesidad de un libro como este sea finalmente reconocida. Ask almost anyone outside of academia to name famous US women of Mexican origin and you will probably hear ‘Dolores Huerta.’ If the person knows our contemporary writers, maybe ‘Sandra Cisneros’ and ‘Ana Castillo.’ If you ask for a name from earlier times, you might get ‘Sor Juana’-the rebel nun of the 1600’s. When you try to dig deeper, your companion may whimper, ‘I give up! Well…there’s the Virgin of Guadalupe, she’s on a lot of T-shirts. It was inevitable, then, that the need for a book like this would be recognized.

Ross worked with Huerta to improve her focus, and he cut her off during frequent outbursts, saying, “Dolores, you’re not thinking—you’re feeling.”23 For Huerta, Ross showed that one could channel righteous anger at injustice into a steady and relentless force that was calm and methodical, without getting exasperated at every roadblock. And while it was clear that only so much of this calm style would rub off on Huerta, it didn’t really matter: too much energy and passion was a problem Ross could work with.