For most people, say farmworkers rights and they immediate think of Ceasar Chavez. It is only expected since he has been honored with a stamp, roads have been named after him and even buildings such as the Grand Rapids’ Cesar E. Chavez Elementary.
Say the name Dolores Huerta and most of those same people would go “who?” She is not a household name such as Chavez but her importance to the success of the United Farm Workers union – which she and Chavez co-founded – is no less than Chavez.
And Latino activist and rock ‘n’ roll icon Carlos Santana hoped to right that wrong by making the documentary “Dolores.”
In honor of Hispanic Heritage month, which goes through Oct. 15, WKTV will air “The Kamla Show” featuring Dolores Huerta and filmmaker Peter Bratt, who will discuss the documentary that was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, recently released to theaters and set to air on PBS in 2018. “The Kamla Show” will air on WKTV 25 Monday, Oct. 2, at 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 11 30 a.m. and Friday, Oct. 6, at noon and 7:30 p.m.
Huerta, now 87, is still not messing around with her mission of empowerment. She moved on from the UFW after Chavez’s death in 1993 to found the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which provides leadership training in the grassroots style of activism she helped to pioneer. Huerta travels throughout the country spreading her message, but continues to focus most of her efforts in the Latino agricultural communities of the California’s Central Valley.
