At the age of 77, labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta continues to organize and reach out to people to fight for social justice and become an active part of the political process.

As Huerta, who founded the United Farm Workers union with Cesar Chavez in 1962, took the stage at Sacramento State Thursday evening, more than 1,500 audience members rose to give her a standing ovation.

“There are so many issues confronting us – it is hard to know where to begin,” Huerta said.

Huerta spoke for more than an hour and a half on a variety of issues including education, women’s rights, the labor movement, racism, corporate greed, gay and lesbian rights, health care, the war in Iraq and free trade. All of these topics were centered on the theme of social justice.

“We have to make change in this country by getting involved in political action and applying direct pressure on politicians,” Huerta said.

In regards to the state of education in the United States, Huerta said the national trend to reduce the amount of money for education is dangerous.

“We cannot continue to be the leaders of the free world if our citizens are not educated,” she said. “If citizens are not educated, the greedy and corrupt take control of the country. That is what we see happening now.”

While she said there is nothing wrong with creating and accumulating wealth, it should be used to benefit everyone and there are more important things people can do, Huerta said. Over the years, the United Farm Workers union accumulated millions of dollars to forward the farm workers’ cause instead of making a few people rich, she said.

Huerta also uses much of her own earnings to support organizations she works with. The money leaves little for her children when she dies, but parents can give their children something more important than a monetary inheritance, Huerta said.

“Leave your children a love of justice when you die,” she said.

This message was what struck Cyndi Long, a social work graduate student, the most about Huerta’s lecture.

“That was an amazing way to bring home that theme of social justice,” Long said. “I have never heard it put that way before.”

Huerta also stressed that while there are many ethnicities and nationalities in the world, there is only one race: the human race.

“If we don’t come together, organize together and fight together, we cannot win,” she said.Nine-year-old Jasmine Carter, who came to the lecture with her mother Angela Carter, said this is what she learned most from listening to Huerta.

“I learned that no matter what race we come from, we are all connected no matter what your last name is,” Jasmine said.

Everardo G. Rivera, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan adviser and EOPS counselor for Oxnard College in Ventura County, said it is important that Huerta addresses issues of inclusiveness.

“The Latino community cannot segregate itself from the rest of society,” Rivera said. “These are not racial issues, but humanitarian and class issues.”

Rivera sees Huerta as a great role model for students and young people.

“She does not just give speeches,” Rivera said. “She goes up and down the state and across the nation working to help people.”

Huerta spends much of her time running the Dolores Huerta Foundation. The foundation’s main goal is the training and organizing of community activists with an emphasis on women and youth.

In 1988, Huerta was beaten by the police officers while protesting in San Francisco against pesticide use in the agricultural industry. Huerta suffered broken ribs and lost her spleen as a result of the beating. She successfully sued the San Francisco Police Department. Huerta uses the $2,000 a month she receives from that lawsuit and the honorariums for speaking at universities to fund her activities.

Young people should not be discouraged to organize and work for causes they believe in because they do not have masses of people standing behind them, Huerta said.

“It just takes a few committed people to get started,” she said. “In 1966, 70 farmers left Delano. By the time they got to Sacramento, they had more than 20,000 people behind them.”

Huerta referred to the United Farm Workers march from Delano, Calif., which is just north of Bakersfield, to Sacramento as part of a farm workers strike against grape growers. The march from Delano and protest at the State Capitol in March 1966 brought national attention to the plight of the farm workers.

Marcos Pacheco, senior government major, said he was inspired by Huerta to make a difference.

“As students, we should be concerned with working for the greater good,” Pacheco said. “We need to get out there and organize.”

Sam Starks, president of the Sac State Alumni Association, brought his 7-year-old daughter to see Huerta speak. He said it is important that young people understand that Huerta’s words and actions are the foundations for many of the freedoms we enjoy today.

“She has laid down the gauntlet for the younger generation,” Starks said. “It is our job as parents, teachers, and leaders to make sure this generation picks up the gauntlet.”

After becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college, Huerta began teaching grammar school in Stockton, Calif., in the early 1950s. Huerta left teaching in 1955 to found and work for the Stockton Chapter of the Community Service Organization.

“I couldn’t stand seeing farm worker children come to class hungry and in need of shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing their parents than by trying to teach their hungry children,” Huerta said.

Jason Catering, graduate student educational leadership and teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, said Huerta inspires him as a teacher.

“She is about doing what she talks about,” Catering said. “She goes out and makes a difference.”

Catering said he tries to take the messages of people like Huerta to his students. “I ask my students to speak their minds about injustices that affect them, and encourage them to do something about it,” he said.

In 1997, Huerta was named by Ladies Home Journal magazine one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century. Women’s rights and political participation are key issues for Huerta. Women make up more than 50 percent of the U.S. population, but only 17 percent of Congress is made up of women, Huerta said. Men and women need to work together to get more women into politics, she said.

“We need to see a gender balance in Congress,” Huerta said. “I want women to be there alongside men making the decisions.”

Helibet Flores, senior psychology major, said Huerta has inspired her to work for women’s rights.

“She made me realize how much women can do to empower one another, and the power women can have if we work together,” Flores said.

Huerta asked the audience to get involved in the effort to establish a national holiday in honor of Cesar Chavez by signing petitions and writing letters to members of Congress. California honors Chavez with a state holiday in March.

“We are working to get a national holiday honoring Cesar Chavez,” Rivera said. “When are we going to get a Dolores Huerta day?”

Todd Wilson can be reached at [email protected].