Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta, who was a co-founder of the United Farm Workers, is less well-known than Cesar Chavez, but her role in that organization was crucial to its success.

I think of Dolores Huerta with another image in addition to her crucial role in labor history. In 1976, I attended a dinner where she was to be honored for her contributions to social change. My older son was only a few months old at the time, and during one part of the evening, I left the main room to nurse him. I found myself next to Huerta, also nursing one of her children, and we exchanged typical new-mother oohs and aaahs over each other's children and spoke briefly of issues of working motherhood. Much of the world knows Huerta -- correctly -- as a tough negotiator, a strong leader. My image of her also includes Huerta the mother. And I don't think the two images conflict in the least.

Read the biography: Dolores Huerta