Review: Workers Have a Friend in the Determined ‘Dolores’

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You can judge Dolores Huerta by what others say about her. Just choose a side: Bobby Kennedy, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have sung her praises, while Richard Nixon, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly have disparaged her ideas. Better yet, judge her by her accomplishments, which are outlined in “Dolores,” a documentary that extols her lifelong, and seemingly unlimited, fighting spirit in the service of workers’ rights.

Born in the United States and of Latin American heritage, Ms. Huerta took up community organizing at a young age before meeting Cesar Chavez and helping found what would become the United Farm Workers. For decades she led unionizing efforts, lobbied politicians and coordinated events (including a widespread grape boycott and workers strike in the 1960s). Throughout the film we see her campaigning for civil rights and protesting unsafe labor conditions, sometimes putting herself in harm’s way.

Peter Bratt, the director, uses an immense amount of historical footage and interviews, arranged with clarity. Although his film is intended to applaud Ms. Huerta, he doesn’t shy away from the toll her travels and choices took on her family. Several of her 11 children are interviewed, and they express pride in their mother, yet recall the deep unhappiness they felt when growing up, often without her around. The sexism that hindered her, too, isn’t glossed over.

Ms. Huerta, now 87, continues her efforts. As a girl, she says, she had wanted to be a dancer. In some way you can see that in her work: She has made activism an art form.

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