Early Wednesday, a few hours before Dolores Huerta spoke to a couple hundred men and women at San Bernardino Valley College, Deana Silagy met the renowned civil rights activist.
It was like “shaking hands with history,” Silagy said.
Silagy, a veteran counselor at SBVC, was among the audience that heard Huerta speak about issues such as education and access to education, immigration, women’s rights and political representation.
The 87-year-old concluded her hour-long lecture by leading the crowd in her famous rallying cry: “Si Se Puede.”
Bruce Baron, San Bernardino Community College District chancellor, called the gathering “an historic moment” for the college and for the district.
“Dolores Huerta is such an important historical figure nationally, and especially for California,” said George Hammons, 63, of Pomona, who noted Huerta’s words still are pertinent today. “To hear her speak, I knew I had to be here.”
“Every one of us owes a debt of gratitude to the work of Dolores Huerta and César Chávez,” John Longville, a longtime friend of Huerta’s and a district trustee, told the audience before Huerta took the stage to a standing ovation.
Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America labor union, discussed the importance of such unions today. Without them, she said, there is no middle class, and with no middle class, she added, there is no democracy.
Huerta, the mother of 11, stressed the need for educating children on leaders of color. Also, the immigrants of color “who built this country,” she said. Respect is needed for people who work with their hands, she added.
She urged those in attendance to elect progressive candidates who represent their values. Know your school district officials, city council members and state representatives, she said. Vote, she continued. “You’ve got to take the power … to dismantle systems of oppression.”
“It’s great to march,” she added. “It’s great to protest. But if you don’t take it to the polls, if you don’t vote, nothing changes.”
A champion of women’s rights, Huerta encouraged women to be assertive, to take a stand. She explained her role in the 1965-1970 Delano Grape Strike and Boycott and how she nurtured future generations of activists by taking her children to demonstrations.
“The only support system a woman has is herself,” she said.
Various San Bernardino Valley College clubs, centers and committees, as well as Cal State San Bernardino, collaborated to organize the event. Guests lined up after the lecture to meet Huerta, and the 2017 documentary “Dolores” was screened at 4 p.m.
Before ceding the stage, Huerta called the crowd to action:
“Leave a legacy of justice,” she said.
“All of us have some way to help others. But never expect a reward or compensation.”
Lastly, “The power is in the person. If we do not do the work, nobody will do it for us.”
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