Early Life and Activism

Early Life and Activism

Childhood and Early Adulthood

Dolores Huerta, born in New Mexico in 1930, was raised in Stockton, California by her mother after her parents’ divorce. After early hardships in the Depression-era, Huerta had a mostly middle-class upbringing, graduating from community college and teaching for a short time after. 

Influenced by her mother’s community participation and her experiences as an elementary school teacher working with the children of farmworkers, Huerta decided to leave behind her comfortable life to pursue activism full time. 

Downtown Stockton, California. (Lora Webb Nichols, 1936).

"I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children." - Dolores Huerta

Beginnings at the CSO

In 1955, Huerta joined the new Community Service Organization (CSO) chapter in Stockton, focusing on the social issues of working-class Mexican Americans. 

There, she met Cesar Chavez, then CSO’s Executive Director, and the two became close confidants.

Huerta and Cesar Chavez. (Dolores Huerta Foundation)

CSO logo. (Andy Zermeno)