1. “We just have to convince other people that they have power.” – Dolores Huerta
2. “I hope people become inspired to become active in their community. That’s the important thing.” – Dolores Huerta
3. “The thing about nonviolence is that it spreads. When you get people to participate in nonviolent action – whether it’s a fast, a march, a boycott, or a picket line – people hear you, people see you, people are learning from that action.” – Dolores Huerta
4. “I quit because I can’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children.” – Dolores Huerta
5. “Why is it that farmworkers feed the nation, but they can’t get food stamps?” – Dolores Huerta
6. “We know we only have about half of our population that’s voting.” – Dolores Huerta
7. “Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.” – Dolores Huerta
8. “Every single day we sit down to eat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and at our table we have food that was planted, picked, or harvested by a farm worker. Why is it that the people who do the most sacred work in our nation are the most oppressed, the most exploited?” – Dolores Huerta
9. “Respecting other people’s rights is peace.” – Dolores Huerta
10. “If we can just convince other people to get involved, this could make some major changes in our society.” – Dolores Huerta
11. “If you haven’t forgiven yourself for something, how can you forgive others?” – Dolores Huerta
12. “Why is it that the people who do the most sacred work in our nation are the most oppressed, the most exploited?” – Dolores Huerta
13. “The racist rhetoric from politicians is inspiring people to organize, as more people see what happens by not getting active.” – Dolores Huerta
14. “When you talk about sacrifices, the ones in my family who have sacrificed are my children, because I love what I’m doing. I love the work. I love to go out there and talk about organizing the people. To me, that’s something I really enjoy.” – Dolores Huerta
15. “If people don’t vote, everything stays the same. You can protest until the sky turns yellow or the moon turns blue, and it’s not going to change anything if you don’t vote.” – Dolores Huerta
16. “Going door to door and talking to people, convincing them to vote, that’s what I call organizing 101.” – Dolores Huerta
17. “Honor the hands that harvest your crops.” – Dolores Huerta
18. “Farm workers are like a symbol, and it is good that people are paying attention.” – Dolores Huerta
19. “We as women should shine light on our accomplishments and not feel egotistical when we do. It’s a way to let the world know that we as women can accomplish great things!” – Dolores Huerta
20. “The thing about nonviolence is that it spreads.” – Dolores Huerta
21. “Giving kids clothes and food is one thing, but it’s much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people.” – Dolores Huerta
22. “A woman’s place in history has never been given the attention that it needs to be given, and that’s why we have a lot of the misogyny in our society today.” – Dolores Huerta
23. “My mother was a dominant force in our family. And that was great for me as a young woman, because I never saw that women had to be dominated by men.” – Dolores Huerta
24. “When you choose to give up your time and resources to participate in community work, that’s what makes a leader.” – Dolores Huerta
25. “Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.” – Dolores Huerta
26. “That’s the history of the world. His story is told, hers isn’t.” – Dolores Huerta
27. “The farmworkers were only earning about 70 cents an hour at that time; 90 cents was the highest wage that they were earning.” – Dolores Huerta
28. “I think we brought to the world, the United States anyway, the whole idea of boycotting as a nonviolent tactic. I think we showed the world that nonviolence can work to make social change.” – Dolores Huerta
29. “I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have a fair distribution of wealth.” – Dolores Huerta
30. “They didn’t have toilets in the fields; they didn’t have cold drinking water.” – Dolores Huerta
31. “I always thought it was wrong for me to take credit for the work that I did. I don’t think that anymore.” – Dolores Huerta
32. “Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk.” – Dolores Huerta
33. “Especially as a teenager, I was always being racially profiled by the police. You just see all this injustice, and you want to do something about it, but you don’t know how.” – Dolores Huerta
34. “I call myself an addicted organizer.” – Dolores Huerta
35. “They didn’t have rest periods. People worked from sunup to sundown.” – Dolores Huerta
36. “Once you see the outcomes and the results, and you see how many people are helped and benefitting, you want to keep on doing it because it’s so simple.” – Dolores Huerta
37. “The first time when I was organizing, I went out and started knocking on doors to see if people were registered to vote. I was a door knocker. I didn’t even have the confidence that I could register people, so I just was out there door knocking. That was my first experience.” – Dolores Huerta
38. “When you get people to participate in nonviolent action, whether it’s a fast, a march, a boycott, or a picket line, people hear you, people see you, people are learning from that action.” – Dolores Huerta
39. “People would say ‘Who is a leader?’ A leader is a person that does the work. It’s very simple. It’s a personal choice for people who choose to put in their time and their commitment to do the work. It’s a personal choice.” – Dolores Huerta
40. “My mother never made me do anything for my brothers, like serve them. I think that’s an important lesson, especially for the Latino culture, because the women are expected to be the ones that serve and cook and whatever. Not in our family. Everybody was equal.” – Dolores Huerta
41. “The conditions were terrible.” – Dolores Huerta
42. “We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for.” – Dolores Huerta
43. “We need to keep ringing the bell, wake people up to get our democracy together.” – Dolores Huerta
44. “I think the importance of doing activist work is to engage people and give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow. Hope that change is possible and that they can be a part of that transformation.” – Dolores Huerta
45. “We can’t let people drive wedges between us…because there’s only one human race.” – Dolores Huerta
46. “Every person is a potential activist.” – Dolores Huerta
47. “When a group of people get together, it’s collective power. You know that you’re doing it for the good.” – Dolores Huerta
48. “Every minute is a chance to change the world.” – Dolores Huerta
49. “If we don’t have workers organized into labor unions, we’re in great peril of losing our democracy.” – Dolores Huerta
50. “I think the importance of doing activist work is to engage people and give them hope.” – Dolores Huerta
51. “Don’t be a marshmallow. Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk. Stop being vegetables. Work for Justice. Viva the boycott!” – Dolores Huerta
52. “We criticize and separate ourselves from the process. We’ve got to jump right in there with both feet.” – Dolores Huerta
53. “I think that’s something that all mothers have to deal with, especially single mothers. We work, and we have to leave the kids behind. And I think that’s one of the reasons that we, not only as women but as families, we have to advocate for early childhood education for all of our children.” – Dolores Huerta
54. “How do I stop eleven million people from buying the grape?” – Dolores Huerta
55. “If you haven’t forgiven yourself for something, how can you forgive others?” – Dolores Huerta