Crowd of 1,000 packs SSU lecture by activist Dolores Huerta: Labor leader co-founded pioneering farmworkers union with Cesar Chavez

Legendary civil rights activist and labor organizer Dolores Huerta spoke to a packed room at Sonoma State University on Thursday, urging the crowd of about 1,000 to get involved and stand up for their rights.

"We were not born to make other people rich," said the 83-year-old Huerta, appearing at the H. Andrea Neves and Barton Evans Social Justice Lecture Series at the university. "We were born to make the world a better place."

Organizers said the crowd was the largest in the history of the event, which is sponsored by a former Chicano studies professor and her husband. Other speakers have included Julian Bond and Cornel West.

Huerta, who with Cesar Chavez helped found the first successful farmworkers union in the country, opened her remarks by imploring those in attendance to sign up for the Affordable Care Act, the national health care reform program.

The open enrollment period for signing up for a health care insurance plan ends Monday, which she said would also have been Chavez's 87th birthday.

"There are a lot of people who have not signed up yet, especially in the Latino community," she said. "If we do not sign up, the whole thing is not going to work."

Huerta also urged the audience to go out and see "Cesar Chavez," a film about the life of the late civil rights leader, which stars Michael Pe??a and John Malkovich and opens in some theaters across the country today. Rosario Dawson portrays Huerta in the film.

Faculty members, community activists and college and high school students were among those in attendance and gave Huerta several standing ovations as she talked about the need for more education, immigration reform, a higher minimum wage, women's and LGBT rights and urged the crowd to get more involved in grassroots activism.

"We have to do it with an electoral revolution," she said.

Jasmine Morales, a 16-year-old student at Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park, said she came to see a woman whom she had learned about in school.

"She's an incredible person. She lifts people up," Morales said. "She inspires you to want to change the world."

With Chavez, Huerta helped organize California farmworkers and the famous nationwide boycott of table grapes that helped secure some rights and benefits for farm laborers.

The New Mexico native grew up in Stockton. She received the the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 from President Barack Obama and continues to be active through her own foundation.

Before Thursday's lecture, organizers said Huerta dined with former farmworkers who now own vineyards.

"We have laid a foundation," she said. "But we have so much more to do."

The message was received warmly by the crowd, and many stayed afterward to surround the diminutive activist.

Sonoma State Professor Francisco V??zquez said while he had met Huerta before, he was buoyed by how many young people turned out.

You can reach Staff Writer Elizabeth M. Cosin at 521-5276 or elizabeth.cosin@pressdemocrat.com.