Sacramento - Acting Governor Eleni Kounalakis today issued a proclamation declaring April 10, 2024 as Dolores Huerta Day.

A powerhouse for social justice, Dolores Huerta was born on this day in 1930 in Dawson, a small mining town in New Mexico. Huerta spent most of her early life in the Central Valley of California, where she found her passion for fighting for the rights of workers and their families and helped pioneer a transformative farm labor movement that carries on to this day.

Working as a schoolteacher in a Stockton agricultural community, Huerta often saw her students come to class hungry. The experience moved her to serve as a Community Service Organization leader. Huerta went on to form the Agricultural Workers Association, where she organized voter registration drives and pushed for neighborhood improvements.

In 1962, Huerta and César Chávez established the National Farm Workers Association, which organized farmworkers for better working conditions. The organization was a predecessor of United Farm Workers, which they later founded in partnership with Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, and other labor leaders and activists. Huerta was a skillful lobbyist and negotiator who played a central role in many of the movement’s successes, including an international boycott of grapes that led to the first farmworker union contracts and the watershed California Agricultural Labor Relations Act.

Huerta’s lifelong pursuit of justice has earned her many accolades. In 1993, Huerta became the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, and was inducted into the California Hall of Fame by a grateful state in 2013.

Through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she continues her tireless work advocating for marginalized communities and teaching the next generation of organizers to empower others and drive social change. As we celebrate Dolores Huerta’s impactful contributions to the labor, civil rights, and women’s movements, I urge all Californians to take inspiration from her example and work to make a positive impact in our communities.

Now Therefore I, Eleni Kounalakis, Acting Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim April 10, 2024, as “Dolores Huerta Day.”