hello friends i'm beth with the national portrait gallery and i want to welcome you to
another introducing where we introduce you to the people and stories that have shaped this country
today i'm happy to introduce you to dolores huerta
and their portrait called return to aslan this painting has five large faces in it they are
miguel hidalgo and jose maria morelos leaders in the mexican war for independence
emiliano zapata a mexican freedom fighter and leader and dolores huerta and cesar chavez
civil rights activists in the united states now these people were all born in different places
at different times but we see them here together in this painting because they have a few important
things in common one of those things that they have in common is they all fought for justice
justice in spanish is justicia can you say justicia or justice means fairness for everyone
let's talk about how dolores huerta and cesar chavez
fought for justicia or justice for workers in the united states a worker in spanish is trabajador
or worker is anyone who has a job some people have jobs in hospitals some people have jobs on trains
some people have jobs in grocery stores
think for a minute about the fruits and vegetables that you might buy in a grocery store
have you ever wondered where they come from who grows the fruits and vegetables who harvest them
the people who work in the fields to grow the vegetables and the fruits that we buy in
the stores are called trabajadores agricolas or farm workers can you say travajadores agricolas
a little bit longer trabajadores
now the work that they do is so important to give us the food that our bodies need
but it's also really difficult work for that reason dolores huerta and cesar chavez
were concerned about the rights of farm workers rights in spanish
can you say that
or rights are the freedoms that everyone should be able to enjoy such as health and safety and
happiness farm workers in the united states have not always had a lot of rights for that reason
dolores huerta and cesar chavez spent many years fighting for their rights
they organized protests and marches they fought for many years for the rights of farm workers
in fact dolores huerta is still alive and she's still fighting for farm workers to have
good rights equal rights something else that miguel hidalgo jose maria morelos emiliano zapata
cesar chavez and dolores huerta have in common is mexican heritage heritage in spanish is erencia
erencia or heritage refers to the traditions and cultures that our families
like our parents and our grandparents and our great grandparents things that they pass on to us
and that we might use to form our own identities for the artist who painted
this portrait alfredo arellin mexican heritage is an important part of his work
he filled this portrait with symbols of mexican pride and heritage such as
the five heroes that he depicts the vibrant colors like the blues the greens and reds the pinks
and even up top we see the black eagle that became a symbol for the united farm workers association
the farmworkers rights organization that dolores huerta and cesar chavez helped organize
and if we turn this eagle upside down
it forms a pyramid just like the pyramids that we see in mexico and central america
finally i'm going to hold this portrait up really close so you can see all of the faces
that make up this image you see the teeny tiny faces here
now these hundreds of faces could either represent the masks created by the ancient peoples of mexico
or they could represent the many many people who share a mexican heritage and have done courageous
things the artist said that in his work he seeks to quote paint the memory of our heroic people
in the context of their heroism so here we have a portrait of five people some from mexico some from
the united states who share a mexican heritage and who have all fought for justicia and so thank
you for joining me in this look at two important people from united states history i hope you can
join us next time for another introducing as we look at history makers in the united states you