Support the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas!

Photo credit: © copyright 2022 by David Bacon

UC Santa Cruz is proud to announce the naming of our Research Center for the Americas in honor of Dolores Huerta. We are raising funds for an accompanying endowment that will help to build up the center’s programs in ways that align with Huerta’s legacy.

Honoring a civil rights icon, activist, and feminist leader. Dolores Huerta has spent her entire life fighting for the rights of  farmworkers, women, youth, immigrants, and many others. Huerta is a visionary leader and organizer: a community-builder who breaks down barriers and speaks truth to power. Her lifelong dedication to human rights is best described by the slogan she coined: “Sí, se puede.”

Renaming the Research Center for the Americas for Dolores Huerta recognizes and permanently enshrines her extraordinary legacy at a time when the current political tides—from efforts to ban books to the erosion of civil and human rights—seek to write leaders like Huerta out of history. As a Hispanic-Serving Institution with a diverse and equity-minded student population, UC Santa Cruz is proud to bear Dolores Huerta’s name. 

Good news: as of October 12th, we’ve secured the $50K matching gift by The Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation for a grand total of $100K!  In the final 10 days of the campaign, we are aiming to secure an additional $10K to make this effort a resounding success. Join us! The funds are to establish an endowment that will support the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas in perpetuity.

The center shares a commitment to many of the same values that are close to Dolores Huerta’s heart, and the naming will inspire students and faculty to continue pushing for positive social change around the most pressing issues facing Latinx communities and Latin America. Endowment funds will help advance the center’s impact by supporting groundbreaking research, student mentorship, and public engagement programs.  

Your contribution to the endowment will:

• Provide funding for interdisciplinary research in Latinx ethnic studies and Latin American area studies.
• Expand hands-on research, professional development, and internship opportunities, primarily for underrepresented and/or first-generation students.
• Strengthen the center’s leadership on critical issues by continuing to attract visiting scholars from around the world and host activist and artist residencies.
• Position the center to serve as a resource for journalists and K–12 educators on subjects of relevance to Latinx and immigrant communities.
• Grow our capacity to sponsor public events—including conferences, seminars, workshops, and exhibitions—on issues that matter to both scholars and our local community.
• Support the center’s growth through the hiring of staff and student interns, with priority recruitment for work-study students. 
• Cultivate a multi-year partnership with Dolores Huerta and the Dolores Huerta Foundation to offer assistance in establishing Huerta's archives for public access.

“I could not be more thrilled about the renaming of the Research Center for the Americas at UC Santa Cruz in honor of Dolores Huerta. During the creation of the documentary film about her life, I spent countless hours with Dolores. She is highly deserving of this university recognition, and I am proud of how her work aligns with the values of my alma mater.” 

–Peter Bratt, writer, producer, and director of the documentary DOLORES and UCSC alumnus

Thank you for your support!

Photo credit: © copyright 2022 by David Bacon