Dolores
Directed by: Peter Bratt
Starring: Dolores Huerta, Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem
Documentary/Biography/History - 95 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 12 Sep 2017
Starring: Dolores Huerta, Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem
Documentary/Biography/History - 95 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 12 Sep 2017
How does one get deleted from the history books and who is erasing them? I suppose the minor figures from the past end up only being obscure trivia questions like who was the Vice Presidential nominee on that one losing ticket so long ago. Nobody deliberately obscures their role; it’s only their impact that was minimal in hindsight. I would not be surprised that many people are unfamiliar with César Chávez. If Average Joe was forced to list famous names in union and labor history, you would see Jimmy Hoffa for sure, perhaps Upton Sinclair, and then Chávez - but his name recognition would be West Coast predominant.
Would it surprise you to learn Chávez had a co-equal partner in founding the United Farm Workers Union? I had no idea. Even more surprising, in an era not known for its inclusion nor diversity, his colleague was a woman, Dolores Huerta. How have I never heard her name before? Sure, the majority of the work which vaulted her name into the headlines occurred before my birth, but the same with Chávez. In Peter Bratt’s eye-opening documentary, Dolores, one reason backed up with plenty of ‘I can’t believe this is real’ evidence is that there was an explicit and complicit effort by certain factions to lessen Dolores’s work and then, in the most nauseating of cases, democratically vote her name out of textbooks.
Would it surprise you to learn Chávez had a co-equal partner in founding the United Farm Workers Union? I had no idea. Even more surprising, in an era not known for its inclusion nor diversity, his colleague was a woman, Dolores Huerta. How have I never heard her name before? Sure, the majority of the work which vaulted her name into the headlines occurred before my birth, but the same with Chávez. In Peter Bratt’s eye-opening documentary, Dolores, one reason backed up with plenty of ‘I can’t believe this is real’ evidence is that there was an explicit and complicit effort by certain factions to lessen Dolores’s work and then, in the most nauseating of cases, democratically vote her name out of textbooks.
If Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck both devoted air time to calling you names and labelling you with the most un-American of epithets, chances are, you probably did something brave and liberal at some point. Dolores Huerta, a single mother with no family history or political backing, confidently went from farmhouse to farmhouse raising awareness, gathering signatures, and urging society’s lowest of the low to organize and fight for egregious comforts like fair wages and the desire not to be poisoned to death by pesticides in the vegetable fields and orchards they picked.
The growers, anti-union heavies, and anyone who worked for Ronald Reagan scoffed at Dolores. How dare she call attention to the plight of the used and abuse; she has 11 kids by three different men! This is a disqualification. She should be in the house raising children, not fighting for fair treatment. There she is sharing the stage with Bobby Kennedy, the laborers greatest political hope of all time. The likes of Angela Davis and Gloria Steinem emphasize the effect she had on social justice and the early days of the feminist movement. Ah, now I see why this would piss off the Fox News Network.
The growers, anti-union heavies, and anyone who worked for Ronald Reagan scoffed at Dolores. How dare she call attention to the plight of the used and abuse; she has 11 kids by three different men! This is a disqualification. She should be in the house raising children, not fighting for fair treatment. There she is sharing the stage with Bobby Kennedy, the laborers greatest political hope of all time. The likes of Angela Davis and Gloria Steinem emphasize the effect she had on social justice and the early days of the feminist movement. Ah, now I see why this would piss off the Fox News Network.
The film’s preview shows quick clips of both Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi praising Dolores, as if there are longer interviews waiting inside the film, but that is false advertising. There are no further words from the most powerful female political heavyweights. But when President Obama awards Dolores with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and gives credit where credit is due, that Dolores created the catch phrase “Si se suede! - Yes we can!”, then you know that without Dolores, the United Farm Workers' achievements would not be as remarkable as they seem today.
Dolores travelled the country for decades lobbying legislatures and leading boycotts that Bratt’s film moves fast, perhaps too fast to firmly grasp what was going on. The film dips its toe into one year for a check-in and then moves on to another year and the next fight. Dolores is 87 now; therefore, there are plenty of years to cover. Footage of Governor Reagan, Nixon, and Bush 41 all yelling into microphones about the evil of organized labor and white women holding placards just wishing “they’d all go back to where they belong” are chilling. Bratt did his homework, but he opted to squeeze all of it in rather than make tough editing choices and cherrypick the highlights. For example, what was up with the Teamsters coming into California and instigating terrible violence? I’m sure the backstory is compelling, but you won’t get it here.
Dolores travelled the country for decades lobbying legislatures and leading boycotts that Bratt’s film moves fast, perhaps too fast to firmly grasp what was going on. The film dips its toe into one year for a check-in and then moves on to another year and the next fight. Dolores is 87 now; therefore, there are plenty of years to cover. Footage of Governor Reagan, Nixon, and Bush 41 all yelling into microphones about the evil of organized labor and white women holding placards just wishing “they’d all go back to where they belong” are chilling. Bratt did his homework, but he opted to squeeze all of it in rather than make tough editing choices and cherrypick the highlights. For example, what was up with the Teamsters coming into California and instigating terrible violence? I’m sure the backstory is compelling, but you won’t get it here.
Bratt interviewed 10 of Dolores’s 11 kids and the scars of empty years without mom and long-held grudges show. More commonplace today, but Dolores did what moms in the 1960s didn’t do, she chose career and family, and warts clearly showing, her family suffered. Executive produced by Carlos Santana who called up Bratt urging him to make this film and remind the world there once was a crusader named Dolores Huerta, Dolores is most certainly an educational film which may return her to the history books, but there is so much of that education, it may be too much of a good thing.
Comment Box is loading comments...
