On View: April 10?July 7, 2014
Location: LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, 501 North Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Los Angeles, CA — LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (LA Plaza) presents ¡Viva la Causa! Dolores Huerta and the Struggle for Justice, the first exhibition to examine the pivotal role Dolores Huerta played in the fight for the rights of farm workers; and in the founding, with César Chávez, of the United Farm Workers (UFW). The exhibition includes approximately 120 serigraphs, posters, drawings, and documentary photographs that chronicle Huerta’s life and this important struggle, as well as her ongoing work as an influential labor and human rights activist.
Huerta views art as an important catalyst in movements for change. She has been the subject and source of inspiration for works by many artists. The early involvement of Teatro Campesino in the fields and posters by artists supporting the organizing efforts of the UFW are on view, as well as contemporary pieces that address issues Huerta continues to work to impact: violence against women, human and civil rights, LGBT rights, labor rights, and immigration.
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Exhibition Overview
Huerta was a teacher in Stockton, Calif. in the early 1950s and described the experience that inspired her early activism:
“I left elementary school teaching because I couldn’t stand seeing farm worker’s children come to class hungry and in need of shoes…I thought I could do more by organizing their parents than by trying to teach their hungry children.” (“Dolores Huerta Biography.” The Dolores Huerta Foundation Sept. 21, 2007)
Works on view in the exhibition include early family photos, documentary photography from the UFW archives at Wayne State and from the Harvey Richards Media Archive, along with photographs by George Rodríguez, as well as posters from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, and serigraphs from Self-Help Graphics and UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.
The show examines the roots of Huerta’s activism, the pivotal strike in Delano, Calif. from 1965?70, and the national grape and lettuce boycott that secured a collective bargaining agreement with table-grape growers, affecting more than 10,000 farm workers. Works from the period of the strike by the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), the UFW Poster Collective, the Chicago Women’s Art Collective, and anonymous artists are on view.
The ongoing work of the 84 year-old human rights activist and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and her foundation are explored along with contemporary works by Barbara Carrasco, Ricardo Duffy, Margaret García, Rupert Garcia, Tony Ortega, and Lalo Alcaraz, and others.
Related Programming
“An Unfinshed Dream” Film Screening and Conversation
Sunday, June 8, 2014 | 3pm
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
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