Dolores DVD

Si Se Puede!!!!!Thank you for showing us how to get it done!Thank you for showing us that we do not have to be perfect to step fully into our power and change the world and inspire generations!!!!Thank you for showing us that we just have to own ourselves and follow your example and keep moving forward!!Thank you for showing us that one osbtacle or defeat just leads to a victory if we just keep moving forward!!Thank you for showing us that we cannot give into to hating those who try to oppress and divide, the way to deal with that is to keep moving forward!!!!!Thank you for showing us how beautiful and powerful we all are when people from different races and different backgrounds dignify and support each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!So grateful that you were born ~ thank you for giving us a blueprint to follow!!!!!Peace and Love To Everyone ~ Everywhere!!!!!!!!!!! : )

In Peter Bratt’s third film, Dolores, you learn about the life of Dolores Huerta, who committed herself to organizing California’s farm workers into the United Farm Workers (UFW). At the time, the biggest and richest union was the Teamsters, who strove to represent all grape workers. The film explores how Dolores was discriminated against by the Teamsters as well as the growers on the basis of her gender and race. The growers cared so little about the laborers that they were willing to dehumanize them by spraying lethal pesticides in the fields without warning the workers about taking proper protection. While watching the film, one is struck by how difficult it must have been to be Dolores, an activist who is both a woman and a woman of color in a world largely dominated by white men. Just as striking is the dehumanization of the workers themselves, who were considered to be nothing more than expendable labor rather than living human beings. What the Teamsters and the US government most feared about Dolores was not simply that she was fighting for these marginalized farm workers, it was also that she looked like them. As their representative, any personal attacks on her became by transitivity an attack on the credibility of the union, and the inverse was true as well -- when the workers were slandered by racial insults, she was being slandered too. Dolores’s story was powerful in the way that it illuminated how she was oppressed not only because of her race but also because of her sex. In one moment, a grower criticizes her, saying, “It’s her personal life, all the children without marriage, and just one every year or so it’s just not accepted.” His criticism was so clearly a sexist attack on her, as it both assumed certain gendered expectations of her and held her to a higher moral and parenting standard than that of a man (would Dolores be criticized for having children out of wedlock and being absent if she were a man? Probably not). This sexist discriminationthen overlaps with racial discrimination when the Teamsters are opposing the UFW strikers, and one particular Teamster yells derogatory epithets towards the strikers about their smell and stink. The film is ultimately very powerful because it does not explore these forms of oppression separately, but rather all at once, as Dolores experienced it throughout her activist career.Additionally, the way in which the growers spread pesticides in the fields while the laborers were working showed a complete lack of empathy for the workers. When these workers talk in the documentary about walking out of the fields with irritated skin and bearing children with limb deformities, it does not take a rocket scientist to draw a correlation. This film really demonstrates how the workers were considered to be nothing more than the labor variable in the grand economic equation, and not as humans. The workers were viewed as objects less valuable than the commodities they were producing, as new replacement workers could always be hired for cheap. A particularily jarring scene recountshow the growers would sometimes rape the laborers’ wives. It really showed how the growers viewed them almost in the same way as property, closer to slaves than employees. This kind of treatment is an indication of the growers’ complete lack of regard for those responsible for producing their commodity. I would recommend this film to anybody interested in Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers or anyone interested in seeing a well made and historically accurate documentary about activism and labor organizing. I was also fascinated by the range of people who were interviewed in the documentary, not only people in Dolores’s community but also people like Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. In the end, the message that I took from the film was that real progress rarely comes quickly or easily but more often over the course of decades through hard-fought battles that result in small but actual and felt forms of improvement in people’s lives.

Another great and quick shipped DVD. Dolores Huerta was such a main, national leader of the UFW, but she was hidden behind Cesar Chavez. Great, eye-opening film for my Ethnic Studies class.

I showed this film after my students had watched the movie César (reenactment). They were SO SHOCKED about how limited the information about Dolores was in the César film - as though she was non-existent or merely background secretarial. This was a great accompaniment and one I will show for many years to come.

I live in California and thought I knew a lot about this woman. This film shows her tremendous sacrifices, and it also examines why (because she is a woman) she is not better known. An inspiring and informative film about a woman who helped change history and gave a voice to those who desperately needed one.

This video really brought back all the memories of the good ole days!! Right...this helped me remember all that Cesar & Dolores went thru, gave up & did for all Mexican's to move forward & speak up. I was very very sad to see the part where, as an older Abuelita, was beaten by the police....people think this doesn't happen...it did, it does & hopefully one day we will all love each other

Just like Dolores this movie is full of light, justice and the unrelenting truth about the society that we live in. Furthermore, this documentary shines a light on the racism that not only the Chicano farmworkers felt but also the Asian American field workers and minorities. This documentary is the very epitome of justice and how ones actions can progressively change the way that minorities in America are viewed. Highly recommend everyone to watch!!

Did you know that Barack Obama's signature line, "Yes we can!" was originally a rallying cry for the farmworkers led by Dolores Huerta? I didn't. Did you know that Dolores Huerta founded the National Farmworkers Association alongside Cesar Chavez? I didn't. What an important story to be told, about an incredible woman who has advocated for, and improved the lives of so many marginalized people across America.