By snoadmin
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Activist and labor leader Dolores Huerta spoke to students about education and feminism Tuesday afternoon on the Southwest Terrace of the University Student Union.
Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez and has spent most of her life fighting for workers’ rights.
She was presented with a certificate of proclamation from Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander and a certificate of recognition from Long Beach City Council member Tonia Reyes Uranga.
Huerta addressed education in the U.S. and California, and recommended cutting prison budgets as opposed to cutting budgets for schooling.
“[Success in education is] not a question of money. It’s a question of willingness on the part of the system,” Huerta said.
Huerta spoke about feminism, and how she believes the way women are raised today creates a sense of weakness.
“We cannot defend ourselves emotionally, psychologically, you know? We can be dominated…. People can manipulate us to do what they want, not what we want them to do and what we want to do for ourselves.”
Vanessa Calva, consul for community affairs with the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, was also at the event.
“It’s a long process that it’s been to defend human rights and civil rights for immigrant communities in this country,” Calva said. “And I think that when we have the chance to pause and to see not only how was it done, but to hear from someone who was there … it just allows us to have a better understanding of what happened and what lessons can be learned from it.”
Calva said that for students, the most important thing they can do to make a change in their community and country is to “be aware.”
“Things the way they are now did not just happen. There was a struggle,” Calva said.
She added that while the first step is to be aware, and know the history of how change came about, people must take that knowledge and make it a transition into action.
Huerta ended her speech with a question she often asks students: “If you had to go out on a deserted island, like in ‘Survivor, ‘ and if you could only take one person with you, who would you pick: an attorney or a farm worker?”
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