Dolores Huerta Character Featured in New Gloria Steinem Biopic ‘The Glorias’

Lead Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Prime
Courtesy of Amazon Prime

The Glorias, a new biopic on feminist icon Gloria Steinem, is a sprawling look at the life of the writer and political activist adapted from her own memoir, My Life on the Road.

During time on the road, Steinem met and worked with many fellow freedom fighters, including Dolores Huerta, labor leader, civil rights activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW). In The Glorias, Huerta is portrayed by actress Monica Sanchez (TV’s House of Cards).

Huerta and Steinem met in the 1960s. Although at the time, Huerta was focused on her work with the UFW and its national boycott on table grapes, Steinem was able to get her attention when she got A&P supermarkets to support UFW and its boycott.

Standing in front of an A&P supermarket is where viewers are first introduced to Huerta in The Glorias. Her first scene comes around the 73-minute mark of the film. In it, we see Huerta, Steinem (Alicia Vikander) and African American feminist and child-welfare advocate Dorothy Pitman Hughes (Janelle Monáe) addressing a group of people in front of the store.

“The social and economic revolution of the farmworkers is well underway,” Sanchez’s Huerta says. “And it will not be stopped until we receive equality… Sí se puede!”

In her final scene, which comes around the 107-minute mark, Huerta meets with Steinem (this time played by Julianne Moore) at a women’s conference where she reveals to her that she is struggling with her pro-life stance on abortion that is guided by her Catholic faith.

“You know along with César [Chávez], I’ve been anti-abortion my entire life,” Sanchez’s Huerta says. “I’m here with my fellow farmworkers to demonstrate in support of the right-to-lifers, but I look at the faces in that angry crowd and… I had to get out.” Today, Huerta is a leading voice in the women’s right to choose movement.

Huerta’s life and work were put under an incredible spotlight in 2017 with the award-winning documentary Dolores. But at 90 years old, isn’t it about time she got her own narrative film?

The Glorias is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.