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Editorial Review

Dolores Huerta: Voice for the Working Poor - Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Cover: Dolores Huerta: Voice for the Working Poor

A new series from Crabtree Books, Groundbreaker Biographies, includes sport figures, fashion designers, political activists and government figures. Two of the biographies are about Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic Supreme Court judge, and Dolores Huerta, a Latino activist who helped to unionize migrant workers. Both are very engaging chronicles of the hardships they endured and overcame in order to make a difference in the lives of others; they stress the successes they achieved in the face of poverty and discrimination. Sonia Sotomayor felt isolated at Princeton University as one of only a few Hispanics. She convinced the college to hire more minority staff and enroll more minority students. Dolores Huerta was criticized as a woman activist for spending too much time speaking out for the voiceless migrant workers at the expense of caring for her home and children. She relied on the help of her mother and relatives while she criss-crossed the country lobbying for health benefits and better wages for migrant farm workers. Van Tol, author of both of these biographies, provides historical background that explains the culture of the times that either helped or hindered these women’s rise to prominence. Each page has either a photograph or an insert repeating a sentence from the text to stress an important point. Terminology connected to the career of these two women is explained in understandable vocabulary. The value of hard work, appreciation for parental sacrifices for their children, pride in one’s heritage—all are stressed throughout both books. A glossary, a chronology, and annotated web sites help students writing research papers on these groundbreaking men and women. Reviewer: Peggy Fleming

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