{"id":16699,"date":"2018-03-21T13:30:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T21:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=16699"},"modified":"2023-08-25T10:26:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T17:26:39","slug":"screenwriter-playwright-josefina-lopez-on-how-dolores-huerta-is-the-mother-of-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/screenwriter-playwright-josefina-lopez-on-how-dolores-huerta-is-the-mother-of-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"Screenwriter Josefina L\u00f3pez on how Dolores Huerta is the Mother of Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Josefina L\u00f3pez<\/strong>
\nThe award-winning screenwriter (<\/em>Real Women Have Curves<\/a>), playwright, and activist L\u00f3pez writes her own personal perspective on her connection to and parallels with Dolores Huerta’s story.<\/em><\/p>\n

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I am all dressed up in an evening gown ready to go out to an event where I will be honored for my activism, and I am to give an inspiring acceptance speech as a representative of the Latino community for a union that works with Latino workers \u2014 when my six-year-old son begs me not to go. I tell him, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I have to go receive an award.\u201d He cries back, \u201cAgain? You did that last week!\u201d I had been receiving awards for writing a play\u00a0in defiance of SB 1070, the anti-immigrant bill in Arizona that gave police officers the right to racially profile Latinos.<\/p>\n

My son cries because he wants me to stay home to play with him and my heart breaks because I feel like an awful mother. I always remember that moment when people ask me what\u2019s the hardest thing about being an artist, activist, entrepreneur and a mother. I tell them, \u201cI can handle long work days, self-sacrifice, racism, sexism, men getting in my face for being so outspoken, and so much rejection of my ideas and my work in Hollywood, but seeing my son crying because I\u2019m not there to play with him crushes me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I saw Dolores<\/em><\/a>, the documentary on Dolores Huerta, I cried recognizing that when her children talk about her being too busy, organizing the farmworkers, to be there for them, that it\u2019s probably what my son will say about me, too. When I found out Dolores had 11 children and still, along with Cesar Chavez, managed to unionize farm workers, I was blown away.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard enough with two kids being a community activist, so I can only imagine how hard it must have been with 11 children having angry grape growers threatening your life for wanting to give farmers a fair wage. It\u2019s inspiring to see a woman who was willing to give up everything to help people who had nothing. She was willing to sacrifice her comforts and her reputation as a mother to do what she knew in her heart and soul was right.“Sometimes becoming a mother is what instigates you to fight harder for a better world.”<\/pullquote><\/p>\n

Instead of using the excuse that she was a mother, to not listen to her heart telling her to fight for the voiceless, she trusted herself, and out of love for her people and her humanity, she chose to stand up and fight. The reason feminists like me say \u201cthe personal is political\u201d is because a revolution starts with self-love. With self-love a woman can challenge patriarchy and all the systems that tell her she has no worth because she wasn\u2019t born a man.<\/p>\n

I was outraged when people criticized Dolores for being a mother and an activist. What people and children don\u2019t understand is that sometimes becoming a mother is what instigates you to fight harder for a better world. Sometimes when you don\u2019t have the courage to fight for yourself you will take up arms for your children and for those weaker than yourself.<\/p>\n

It is through mothers that you build community, by teaching children through example that you must not cower to power, that you must work towards something more powerful than yourself, and that individuals are powerful when they affirm their humanity by refusing to allow others to dehumanize them. When women and mothers fight for justice they encourage more women to speak up and fight alongside the men. Justice and fairness can only happen when those who are considered the weakest in society are valued and given the same opportunities as men.“Watching Dolores<\/em> made me realize that as a Chicana feminist I am not alone. All my struggles have been fights that Dolores already had and survived.”<\/pullquote><\/p>\n

I squirmed when Dolores Huerta was made to apologize for being a real woman who had to divorce men who wanted her to stay put, small, and silent. Why is it her fault that she has to grow up in a\u00a0patriarchal society that forces women to marry in order to exist<\/em>? I know what it is to be a several times-divorced Latina who felt so much pressure to get married, and know how important it is to make mistakes and learn from them.<\/p>\n

So much of the wisdom from Dolores comes from her mistakes. \u201cA woman cannot decide what she wants to do with her life until she can decide if she wants children and, if so, how many,\u201d she realized later on in life, which allowed her to be a more empowered feminist.<\/p>\n

History is filled with great men who fought the good fight, but because it\u2019s his<\/span>-story women like Dolores get left out. It\u2019s important that her story and her contributions as a union organizer and activist are not erased or forgotten. Her contribution to the environmentalist movement must be known because, thanks to her, environmental justice includes people of color.<\/p>\n

Hopefully seeing her story will ensure that more women, and especially Latinas who are always told to stay quiet and be invisible, will see that they, too, have a story and can contribute to humanity in their way.<\/p>\n