Bakersfield College to celebrate Dolores Huerta Day with book talk and panel discussion

April 9, 2019 /

Bakersfield College is celebrating Dolores Huerta Day with a book talk with Stacey Sowards, the author of “Si, Ella Puede,” a story on the rhetorical legacy of Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers.

The author will talk about Huerta’s integral role as a leader and organizer in the fight for farmworkers’ rights from the 1950s to the present, a news release says.

A cofounder of the UFW alongside Cesar Chavez, Huerta was a union vice president for nearly four decades before starting her own foundation in the early 2000s.

In the book, Sowards examines Huerta’s rhetorical skills, both in and out of the public eye, and defines Huerta’s vital place within Chicana/o history, the event flyer says.

Sowards, a professor and chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at El Paso, shows how Huerta navigates the complete intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, language and class through challenges faced by women activists of color.

The event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Norman Levan Center at Bakersfield College. Light refreshments will be served.

BC’s Latinas Unidas Club is also honoring Dolores Huerta Day on campus with a roundtable discussion about “Navigating Higher Education” featuring Latina leaders in Kern County.

The panelists include BC professor Olivia Garcia; Rosa Lopez, a community engagement and policy advocate with the ACLU Southern California; CSUB Political Science Professor Ivy Cargile; Isabel Bravo, the director of environmental health and safety at Wonderful Citrus Company; and UFW Foundation attorney Amber Tovar.

The event runs from 3-5 p.m. Wednesday in the Levan Center.