A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For more on the legacy of Dolores Huerta, we've called up Gustavo Arellano. He's a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, whose latest piece is called "The Dolores Huerta I'll Remember." Gustavo, what will you remember from Dolores Huerta?
GUSTAVO ARELLANO: Just the person who cared above all everyone else and especially young people in the future. My first memory of Dolores in person was speaking at this high school conference in Las Vegas. I was a keynote speaker, and the opener was Dolores for, like, 10 minutes. And, of course, she slayed the audience. She got all those teenagers to just immediately care about themselves, though. She wasn't talking about how cool she was. She was talking about how amazing they were going to be. And at the end, she had us all chanting si se puede - yes, we can. And then she just walked off like she was just any other person.
MARTÍNEZ: What an act to follow. You have to follow her...
ARELLANO: I know...
MARTÍNEZ: ...Of all people. Yeah. In the times that you have interacted with her, I mean, how would you describe her?
ARELLANO: Small, but a dynamo with an energy that, like, matches that of a 21-year-old. I mean, she was 96, and, of course, that's a little bit up there in age. But we all assumed she would live forever because she was always working. She was always going to conferences. She was taking selfies with photos. She loved art. She loved fundraisers. She loved being arrested in the name of something bigger. I mean, this truly was - when you talk about leaders being selfless, that's what Dolores was. But also leaders, especially when we talk about the big ones, you think they're not approachable, and she was about as approachable a person as you could ever possibly meet.
MARTÍNEZ: You mentioned her being selfless, as we heard. She told The New York Times earlier this year that Cesar Chavez raped her decades ago. The Times also reported on other allegations that Chavez molested and raped children. And, you know, she mentioned how she kind of kept it quiet because she didn't want to affect the farm workers movement. I mean, what effect did that reporting have on the movement she helped create?
ARELLANO: You can separate the man Cesar Chavez from the movement they all created. The movement was righteous. As - you know, as the clip said earlier, fighting in the fields. I don't think activists today can appreciate what a revolution the United Farm Workers movement had on Mexican Americans across the country. And not just Mexican Americans, by the way - the strike, the grape strike. I mean, this is RFK. He was with Cesar Chavez when he broke the fast, and Dolores was the person - she was kind of like the Apostle Paul, going all around the United States, telling people. And then that was just a small segment in time. For decades later, Dolores was also fighting for women's rights, for political rights, for all sorts of things. When we talk about American activists of the past 50 years, honestly, on that Mount Rushmore is Dolores.
MARTÍNEZ: And it goes toward what you said in your column - that she became a collective matriarch.
ARELLANO: A signora. In Latino culture now you - a lot of women in their 30s and 40s, they brag about they're now in their senora era. In other words, now you're...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
ARELLANO: ...Becoming an older woman in the community, which means you're more respected. Dolores has been part of our collective consciousness now for - what? - 60 years, which is incredible. And so many people - I mean, she could have easily retired in her 60s. No one would have ever held it against her. But once you have that moral weight, you could say everything that you want, and people are going to pay attention. And then, not only that, when you're still going out there at 95, at 96, people think, like, wow, I need to model myself after her. I could do much better. Next time I'm tired or bored, I just need to figure out, ask myself, what would Dolores be doing right now?
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. I couldn't imagine her just retiring and just slipping away from, you know, everything. I mean, how did she feel about the United States, the country and its future?
ARELLANO: She was someone who always loved this country. And by loving the country, by the way, that means you have to be a ruthless critic of all the bad things. But she always had hope - optimism, if you will - and acknowledged that the country could be better if only people got motivated enough to fight for the least among us. That's above all. She was not someone who was an apologist for the rich, an apologist for the powerful. She always sided (ph) herself. Toward the end of her life out here in California, she was going to conferences at the California Working Families Party. So these are a lot of...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
ARELLANO: ...Progressive candidates, kind of, like, DSA, but maybe a little, like, the tiniest bit not as leftist. But she was going there, and she was talking to these young activists and caring about these aspiring politicians.
MARTÍNEZ: That's LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano. His latest column is titled "The Dolores Huerta I'll remember." Gustavo, thanks a lot.
ARELLANO: Gracias.
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