Huerta to Speak at the Chelsea Handler-Organized Women’s March on Main

Dolores Huerta has been given her marching orders…

The 86-year-old Latina labor leader and civil rights activist is set to speak at the Chelsea Handler-organized Women’s March on Main, an event taking place Saturday in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival.

Dolores Huerta 

The march will coincide with post-inauguration marches being held nationwide including the March on Washington.

In addition to Huerta, the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW), the list of speakers for the Park City event includes Aisha Tyler, Connie Britton, Mary McCormack, Benjamin Bratt, Laurie David, Jessica Williams, Maria Bello and local officials including Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski. Handler is an organizing committee member.

The event, which is not affiliated with the festival, will start at 9:00 am local time at 220 Main St.

Handler announced plans for the march earlier this month. The march is set for two hours, usually before Park City really begins stirring during the festival. But just in case, the city has set up a text-messaging system for updates on transit, traffic and road closures.

Luna’s Cesar Chavez Biopic to Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival

Diego Luna’s latest directorial effort is set to premiere in Germany…

The 34-year-old Mexican actor/director’s biopic Cesar Chavez: An American Hero will have its world premiere next month at the Berlin International Film Festival, according to the movie’s production company.

Diego Luna

The film about Latino icon Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) will be entered into the festival’s official program in the Berlinale Special section, which presents recent works by contemporary directors, as well as cinematic portraits of renowned personalities, Canana Films, which Luna co-owns with fellow Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, said in a statement.

The cast of the biopic is led by Michael Peña, who portrays the late migrant farmworkers’ leader and civil rights activist.

Michael Pena as Cesar Chavez

Golden Globe winning actress America Ferrera portrays Chavez’s wife, while Rosario Dawson plays Dolores Huerta, Chavez’s partner in founding the National Farmworkers Association (later renamed to the United Farm Workers).

“Cesar Chavez represents the largest non-violent protest movement in U.S. history; his goal was to achieve basic human rights for the more than 50,000 farm workers in California,” said the production company’s statement.

“We think the film will send the message that change is in our hands. Chavez did something that everyone thought was impossible with courage that inspired an entire nation.”

Cesar Chavez, which will hit U.S. theaters on March 28 and arrive in Mexico on May 2, was filmed in the United States and the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

It marks Luna’s second foray into directing, after his hit 2010 comedy/drama Abel.

Obama Awards Huerta the Medal of Freedom

She’s a political and cultural icon in Latino community… And, now Dolores Huerta is the recipient of the nation’s highest civilian honor.

President Barack Obama presented the 82-year-old Mexican American labor leader and civil rights activist with the Medal of Freedom on Tuesday at a special ceremony at the White House.

Dolores Huerta

Huerta—one of 14 recipients of the award this year, including novelist Toni Morrison, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low—co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with César Chávez. It later became the United Farm Workers (UFW).

“I’m deeply gratified in receiving the Medal of Freedom. The freedom of association means that people can come together in organization to fight for solutions to the problems they confront in their communities. The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action,” said Huerta about receiving the honor and her experience as a civil rights leader. “It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women’s movement, the equality movement for our LGBT brothers and sisters are all manifestations of these rights. I thank President Obama for raising the importance of organizing to the highest level of merit and honor. It is a unique honor and privilege to be included in this group of distinguished individuals being honored here today and the communities they represent.”

Dolores Huerta

Huerta’s sense of justice developed from an early age. Raised in Stockton, Calif., Huerta watched her father work for little pay in the fields, while her mother managed a hotel that often let poor migrants stay for free, according to the Daily Beast.

Using strikes, marches, boycotts and hunger strikes, the UFW has defended the interests of farm workers, including many immigrants, and pressured businesses to sign collectively bargained contracts. The union’s tactics often met resistance. Huerta has been arrested 22 times and been beaten for her activism.

Despite her run-ins with the law, Huerta has been influential in passing far-reaching legislation. Her accomplishments as a labor rights activist include helping pass California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 and helping secure disability insurance for California farmworkers.

Today, the UWF boasts 27,000 members, powerful political allies, and is active in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.

Huerta’s special award— presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the national interests of the United States—comes just two weeks after the farm workers union celebrated its 50th anniversary.

In 2002, Huerta launched the Dolores Huerta Foundation with the mission of supporting community organizers and budding political leaders.