Dolores Huerta to raise money for Central Valley families in need during pandemic
Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta says immigrant families most in need in the Central Valley during the coronavirus pandemic are being left behind.
Farmworkers, for example, she said are essential workers, yet they were sort of “ignored from the beginning.”
To help meet those families’ needs, on Saturday, she will celebrate her belated 90th birthday raising funds for immigrant families, including the undocumented, who are struggling to get by in the Central Valley and the state’s high-desert area.
Through her Dolores Huerta Foundation, Huerta — who turned 90 on April 10 — will host a digital fundraiser on social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
She will be joined by top politicians such as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, presidential candidate Joe Bidden and his wife, Jill, as well as former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Senator Kamala Harris.
There’s also a lineup of celebrities that will join her, such as Carlos Santana, Jane Fonda, America Ferrera, Salma Hayek, Kate del Castillo, and Benjamin Bratt, among others.
Huerta, who lives in Bakersfield, said she hopes the public will take part in the event, have fun and contribute. Some of the celebrities will participate live or will call in. There is no fee to join the event or limit for donations.
“We know that the amounts of money that has been given out is not enough,” she said during a Friday interview with The Bee. “We know that whatever we raise is not going to be enough to meet all of the need, but at least it will mitigate it, and will be able to help some of the families.”
Undocumented workers in California were able to begin applying for a one-time payment of $500 per individual or $1,000 per household on May 18. Many workers flooded the state’s COVID-19 disaster relief website, causing it to crash for several hours on its first day. Hotlines for the nonprofits that will distribute the funds were “jammed,” and people couldn’t get through to anyone on the phone.
Experts have estimated only about 150,000 undocumented immigrants will be able to access aid from the $125 million emergency fund established by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Of that amount, $75 million will be picked up by the taxpayers, while the other $50 million will come from philanthropic donations, and will target specific immigrant groups.
Undocumented workers were left out of federal relief aid, and are not eligible for California’s unemployment insurance benefits. Many immigrants work in the fields, she said, especially in the Central Valley.
Farmworkers, Huerta said, usually consist of families that go to work together.
“If you have a couple that goes out to work, but then you have children there at home because they are not in school, then one of the parents has to stay home,” she said. “That cuts their income in half of what they would normally see.”
And then you have immigrants who work as caretakers or in restaurants, Huerta said, and “some of them were really affected by this pandemic.” They are part of the “invisible,” she said.
Some families might receive a one-time payment from the $125 million emergency fund that might help them pay half of their rent, pay their utility bills, or buy food. Yet, she said, the pandemic has been going on for months.
“We know that were there so many applications that the system actually crashed,” she said. “It comes back to the whole idea that we don’t acknowledge or recognize the people in the undocumented community.”
Huerta didn’t set a goal as to how much money she would like to raise on Saturday.
She said the money would be distributed to organizations responsible for taking applications from families in need. Each organization has a different application process, and the funds will benefit both undocumented and legal immigrant families — the majority of whom reside in Kern, Tulare and Fresno counties.
For more details on the event, how to donate, as well as how to access funds for families in need, visit: doloreshuerta.org.
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