Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2006

Contact: Marisa Ramirez
713.743.8152 (office)
713.204.9798 (cell)
mrcannon@uh.edu

A pioneer in the civil rights movement for immigrants brings her living history story to the University of Houston. Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farmworkers of America, will discuss “Taking a Stand in History,” at
7:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 9 at the UH Cullen Performance Hall.

The event is free and open to the public.

Huerta began her civil rights work in the 1950s when she was a grammar school teacher in California. Her students were children of farm workers and often needed clothing, shoes and food. She said she decided it would be more beneficial to organize the farm workers for better working conditions and wages.

In the 1960s, she lobbied for the removal of citizenship requirements for pensions in California and to have voting ballots printed in Spanish. In addition, her efforts were pivotal in securing Aid for Dependent Families and disability insurance for farm workers in California.

She is perhaps best known for her work with Cesar Chavez that led to the creation of the United Farmworkers of America. Their efforts to champion farmworkers’ rights culminated in the famous “Delano Grape Strike” in 1965 when more than 5,000 grape workers throughout the San Joaquin Valley protested area grape growers and demanded higher wages.

The lecture is sponsored by the UH History Department.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.