“People have the power:” Dolores Huerta discusses lifelong fight for democracy, feminism at the Texas Tribune Festival

Prominent civil right activist and labor rights leader Dolores Huerta joined the Texas Tribune Festival on Friday to speak about everything from women making powerful leaders to police brutality to the fight for democracy.

The panel discussion, moderated by Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, was held at St. David’s Episcopal Church followed by a gathering at the Capital Factory in the Omni Austin Hotel downtown, where Huerta signed copies of the recently-released book, “50 Years of Ms.: The Best of the Pathfinding Magazine that Ignited a Revolution.” The anthology captures five decades of the feminist magazine, where Huerta serves on the advisory board. It features essays, profiles and conversations with trailblazing women and highlights topics from abortion to voting.

“People have the power to solve problems in their own communities,” Huerta, 93, told the crowd at the multi-day festival featuring sessions on politics and policy.  “People shouldn’t wait for the power to try and help them.”

Huerta is widely known for being co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association. She holds the 1998 Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, the 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom and the 2020 Glamour Lifetime Achievement Award. She founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation in 2002, which creates and promotes leadership opportunities.

The audience gave a standing ovation as the petite Huerta, dressed in a pink blazer and a traditional Mexican embroidered shirt, called a huipil, waved and smiled before taking her seat next to Brinkley.

Huerta discussed the purpose of her foundation. She emphasized that the goal is, “to make people understand that they have power and they can get engaged on how to use that power.” 

Throughout the discussion, Huerta reminded the audience that if they remember and recognize their individual power they can come together as a community to produce change.

She offered women’s bodily autonomy as an example.

“A woman’s right to an abortion is used as a political tool and they criminalize women. It’s fascist. It is not democratic, and it’s not right, ” she said.

Huerta was asked if she was caught off guard by the dismantling of Roe v. Wade.

“Ms. Magazine had been reporting that this was going to be a possibility before it happened,” she said. “We knew it was going to happen because they’re using this as a political hammer.” 

Asked if she thought society is locked in a moment of fascism, she was quick to respond.

“I think everybody knows that,” she said to a roar of laughter from the audience. “I think we don’t identify as fascist, but if we think about what that word means it means to hurt or punish… gay people for being gay, transgender for being trans, and immigrants for being immigrants.”

Brinkley said that Huerta has stood up against fascism, worker and womens’ rights longer and harder than anyone he knows.  

Huerta said she has no plans to stop fighting.

“I want to make sure that while I’m alive we make it a better place to live,” she said. “When we die it’s not about how much money we have, but how many people we help and how we make the world a better place.”