Dolores Huerta is a Chicana activist icon from New Mexico. Her influence in the 1960s farm worker strikes created waves across the country and ultimately led to the creation of the National Farm Workers Association. Her story is not unheard of, but a young composer from New Mexico has brought this slice of time to life with a contemporary opera piece.
Nicolás Benavides is originally from Los Ranchos in Albuquerque and has collected a variety of music degrees from schools across California. He spoke with KUNM about the creation of his newest opera.
BENAVIDES: So I'm related to Dolores Huerta. We are second cousins, twice removed. I recently learned, usually in big Hispanic families, we just say Primos, but the other day, I had to fact check myself and actually look at the family tree. So we're Primos, but second cousins, and I just grew up with her, going to family reunions, hearing stories, and especially this point in time, 1968 this time of great social unrest, the United Farm Workers, the grape strike, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, Martin Luther King's and what it meant to the Chicano civil rights movement and farm workers and laborers in general. And I didn't even know I wanted to be a composer then I just liked the story, because it struck me as a moment in American history when people chose bravery and they chose sacrifice, and they went through a crisis of faith and had all the cards stacked against them, and they still persevered, right? And I thought, if they could do it, then, like we could do anything, anytime. And then I learned I could become a composer. And I started studying, and I went to school, and as I started to get composition opportunities, people kept asking me, “what are some stories you're interested in?” And I kept pitching this over again. And eventually I found the right writing partner, Marella Martin Koch, my librettist, and the right opera companies, multiple opera companies, all at once, wanted to commission it. So West Edge Opera was the vanguard in Oakland. They were the first to take a chance on it. And then very soon after Opera Southwest here in Albuquerque said, we got to do it. We're on Avenida Dolores Huerta like we got to do this opera. So it's already doing a tour of four cities in the first two seasons, which is actually pretty incredible to get that many shows after spending five years writing the music.
KUNM: Huerta is a Chicana activist icon, not only in New Mexico, but across the country. How do you hope that this opera will reflect her life and legacy?
BENAVIDES: Her legacy isn't just her, it's really her fight for justice and her fight against injustice, and she's still doing that at age 95 I think that's the most important part of her legacy. And I want this opera to inspire people not to just learn more about her and what she's done, but to learn more about all the heroes of the past who have stood up to the most insane odds of injustice and said, “I won't stand for this,” and fought even in the face of complete uncertainty. You have to remember at this time, the farm workers were striking for three years. I mean, it's almost unfathomable. For three years they were not working, picketing day after day after day in the hot sun, and Bobby Kennedy was supposed to end that strike three years they were at their breaking point, and when he was assassinated and Richard Nixon won, they kept going for two more years. So five years of fighting in poverty with the grape strike and boycott, building solidarity, changing the national discourse and opinion under the presidency of Richard Nixon is just an insane achievement. It's like climbing a mountain, you know. And I want people to know that if they did that, then we can do amazing things now. ven if it seems like the powers that be don't want us to rise up and fight, we still can. That's the message I want to be taken as part of her legacy.
KUNM: Give me just a small outline of what this show is going to be like for the people of New Mexico.
BEVAVIDES: I didn't want it to be a documentary, because those exist, and those are really good. This is just about a slice in a moment of time. So it takes place in 1968 .We meet the characters, Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Larry Itliong, and we learn that they are three years into the grape strike, and they are exhausted. They don't know what to do to stop the violence, to stop the growers from oppressing the farm workers and Bobby Kennedy kind of emerges on the scene and breaks fast with Cesar Chavez and says, “I will help end the strike for you. I will help make government policies that are friendly to unions.” And that happened because Dolores Huerta called his office and said, “Cesar Chavez has been fasting for 25 days. If you come, he might break fast with you. It might mean that much.” So he did. He flew out and landed and broke the fast and they moved their entire operation, all of their willpower, the farm workers, the people, the most vulnerable with the least in this country, got behind Bobby Kennedy and canvassed for him with the leadership of Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez and Larry Itliong, and they got him the presidential primary in California, which was not guaranteed. He had just lost Oregon. And they thought, maybe this isn't going to work out anyway. And they fought harder than ever with record turnout in voters. And that night, at the celebration at the Ambassador Hotel, after his wonderful acceptance speech, he walks off stage into the kitchen and is shot. And of course, the bus boy, Juan Romero, was there to hold him and pray with him with his rosary. And then we sort of see the cast. They try to figure out what to do next, and we realize the fight was not about Bobby Kennedy, it's about the farm workers, and that fight still needs to be fought. And they continue, and we sort of zoom into the future as they continue to protest. And she chants “¡Si se puede!”
Opera Southwest will perform Dolores October 26 and 31, as well as November 2. Find tickets here.
