Dolores Huerta’s story needed to be told. How could one of the most influential figures in every farm workers rights movement in the U.S. be so unknown? How could such a powerful activist from the civil rights era, who is still working today, not be a household name? The documentary “Dolores” addresses those questions.

“Dolores” chronicles the career of Dolores Huerta, 87, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union and organized the Delano grape strike of 1965 along with César Chávez. Huerta was the main negotiator of the workers’ contract that the strike prompted.

In the film, distinguished contemporaries of Huerta like Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis talk about what Huerta’s work means to them. They comment on Robert F. Kennedy’s friendship with Huerta and what it meant to all civil rights movements when Kennedy was murdered. Huerta stood on the stage with Kennedy moments before he was shot.

The film asserts that Huerta’s work should be viewed as equally important to Chávez’. They were partners. She was not his “sidekick” as one film interviewee said.

Interviews with several of Huerta’s 11 kids, and Huerta herself, explore the sacrifices she made early in her career to bring national awareness to the plights of mostly Latino farm workers. Her whole life was dedicated to her cause. Her kids had to come second.

“She felt guilty living life,” said Huerta’s daughter, Camila Chávez.

However, the film makes clear Huerta’s love of life outside of the movement. She was a jazz  enthusiast. The film weaves in a remarkable soundtrack filled with jazz, salsa, soul, funk and rock tracks appropriate for each period of Huerta’s life. Songs by James Brown and Carlos Santana, who also produced the film, fit perfectly with Huerta’s spirit.

Huerta’s accomplishments are so numerous that the film feels rushed, but for good reason. Each detail is worth including. Its pace mirrors Huerta’s unrelenting advocacy. She drew on the non-violent philosophy of Gandhi and was one of the first people to talk about environmental justice when farm workers were dying from toxic pesticide exposure. Environmental justice is now an independent school of thought.

The film makes a timely comment about the ill-advised tendency for the public to view civil rights movements in isolation. Huerta was picketing in California and talking about the economics of racism at the time Martin Luther King Jr. was marching in the streets of Alabama. The movie shows echoes of that tendency to see civil rights movements as discrete in today’s social justice movements.

The Broadway Metro theater on W Broadway between Olive and Willamette streets is showing the film until Oct. 26. On Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. the theater is partnering with the political action group Sister District Project and all proceeds from that showing of “Dolores” will go toward supporting the campaigns of Manka Dhingra for Washington State Senate and Mike Mullin for Virginia House of Delegates.

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The exhibit “DIGNITY: Tribes in Transition” on display at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History is powerful. Powerful enough to move former President Barack Obama to sign the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People on Dec. 10, 2010.

One hundred forty-four U.N. delegates initially voted in favor of adopting the declaration in 2007 and each of the four countries that initially voted against it (U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand) have since voted in favor of the declaration.

Its purpose was to establish the collective and individual rights of indigenous people around the globe, and as the declaration states, to “emphasize the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, cultures and traditions, and to pursue their development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations.”

The exhibit contains 32 black and white portraits of indigenous people from around the world. Photographer Dana Gluckstein had been waiting for the right time to show these photos taken over the course of 30 years to the world and compile them into a book, which contains 60 portraits. The U.N. declaration and subsequent votes against it signaled to Gluckstein that the time was now. 

“The Dignity: Tribes In Transition” exhibit is on display in the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Eugene, Ore. on Oct. 11, 2017 (Madi Mather/Emerald)

The portraits stand on their own, captions under them would be unnecessary since the photos say enough already. Each portrait captures an intimate moment in the life of someone whose culture is in conflict with the development of modern societies. Many of the portraits show this conflict explicitly, but others are more subtle in their portrayal.

The photo titled “Goba Boys” exudes this tension between cultural tradition and modern life. In the photo, two teenage boys from Zambia are standing with an arm around each other’s shoulders. They are covering their faces with feather-crowned masks that appear to be made of recycled cardboard. One of the boys is wearing an elaborately crafted necklace that almost takes up his entire torso. Both boys are also wearing tattered modern clothes and sneakers, and one of them is wearing a Barcelona FC soccer jersey. This clash between traditional customs and globalized, capitalistic systems is mesmerizing.

“The Dignity: Tribes In Transition” exhibit is on display in the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Eugene, Ore. on Oct. 11, 2017 (Madi Mather/Emerald)

When seen together, the photos demonstrate an appreciation of the oneness of all living and nonliving things, an appreciation that many modern societies have lost sight of. Every wrinkle, every hair and every expression on the faces of the people in the photos is sharply clear. The details transport the viewer to that precise moment when Gluckstein snapped the photo, giving him or her an impression of the individual’s essence.

Dana Gluckstein’s exhibit will remain on display at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History until Dec. 17.

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The documentary “Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America” forces people to confront what they never knew about the relationship between the United States and Latin America. Viewers are guaranteed to learn something profound about hope, oppression and achievement from the stories that make up this history, no matter their background.

On Wednesday, Oct. 4, the Bijou Arts Cinema on E. 13th Avenue in Eugene held a free screening of the documentary in partnership with the Wayne Morse Center for Law & Policy and the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon. The documentary, released in 2012, is based on the book of the same title by Juan González. The movie is directed by Peter Getzels and Eduardo López.

Before the film started, under the high, wooden ceiling of Auditorium 1, which used to be the main chapel area when the building was a church, the near-capacity crowd of students, retirees and curious community members chewed popcorn, sipped sodas and chatted using hushed voices. Then the room fell silent, and the movie took viewers through the long, brutal history of U.S. military intervention throughout Central America and the alarmingly immoral tactics it frequently used.

People periodically gasped as the film showed clips of Fox News commentators praising Arizona’s controversial 2010 immigration law, encouraging racial profiling and using insensitive epithets.

However, the film contrasted the news clips with interviews from Nobel-laureates, academics and former U.S. government officials about this troubling history. They told powerful stories about the resilience, successes and abuses of Latino immigrants living in the U.S. today. Each of the stories shows the integral role immigrants play in defining what it truly means to be “American.”

After the 90-minute documentary concluded, graduate students from the UO Department of Romance Languages led a discussion about the film. The recurring theme among people who spoke was that the film is even more important now than when it came out five years ago. Immigration is now a top national political issue, and recent rhetoric and policy changes from the Trump administration have left many people feeling like outsiders in the country they wish to call home.

In a post-screening interview, community activist Anthony Samperio said it makes sense to him that the school system in the U.S. doesn’t teach this history.

“They don’t want to show things that make our country look bad, especially because there are almost no instances of redemption when it comes to the treatment of Latino people in America,” Samperio said.

He was pursuing a graduate degree in Chicano studies when he decided to drop out and become a community activist.

“I didn’t feel like I was really getting anything done,” Samperio said.

From 2017 to 2019, the UO Wayne Morse Center for Law & Policy’s theme of inquiry is “Borders, Migration and Belonging.” This year from mid-October to mid-November, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and undocumented U.S. resident Jose Antonio Vargas will be in residence at the Wayne Morse Center. Vargas will be giving a lecture at Straub Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. A full events schedule is available on the Wayne Morse Center website.

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When Yoon Bigot opened her first Bon Mi Vietnamese French Cuisine restaurant in downtown Eugene five years ago, she knew she wanted to open another location closer to the University of Oregon campus one day. On Aug. 18, 2017 that day came, and Bigot’s second Bon Mi restaurant opened on E 13th Avenue between Alder and Kincaid Streets.

David Krasnove (right) waits for his to-go order and Yanong Tan (left) enjoys her pho at Bon Mi. (Max Egener/Emerald)

The new Bon Mi features the same competitively-priced menu items as the downtown location on E Broadway between Oak and Pearl Streets. Pho and noodle soups, banh mi sandwiches, bun vermicelli and salads are the featured items. Nothing on the menu is over $9 and sandwiches are $7.25, except for the $8.25 grilled beef sandwich. Bigot designed a menu that doesn’t overwhelm customers with choices, but maintains enough variety to keep people coming back.

Banh mi sandwiches are a satisfying break from the typical American-style sandwiches that often dominate college students’ lunches. Banh mi is served on a soft french baguette with a choice of marinated, grilled meats or tofu and pickled vegetables.

“I wanted to make comfort food for students,” Bigot said. “Our food is perfect for when it’s raining, which, during the school year, it usually is here.”

When she lived in a primarily Vietnamese neighborhood in Los Angeles with her husband, a UO College of Design alum who majored in architecture, she noticed nearly all the restaurants either served only pho and soups or only sandwiches. Her love of Vietnamese cuisine drove her to open restaurants that served both when her family moved to Eugene.

In addition to traditional pho, which is served with thin rice noodles, herbs and vegetables in beef, chicken, pork or vegetable broth, Bigot is proud to serve a unique curry pho. She said the flavors of rice noodles and vegetables combine well in a warm coconut milk curry.

David Krasnove (right) waits for his to-go order and Yanong Tan (left) enjoys her pho at Bon Mi. (Max Egener/Emerald)

Although she is delighted by how the new restaurant turned out, Bigot struggled to get the place up and running.

She said she had to redo the hardwood floors three times because of unsatisfactory contractors. That experience prompted her to let her husband design the restaurant’s interior. She also had to build a new kitchen where there used to be a parking lot. But now, Bigot and her hardworking staff are ready for the first year catering to UO students’ appetites.

On a block lined with established restaurants next to the UO campus, Bon Mi will have competition. It closes at 9 p.m. on weekend nights, so it won’t be serving students looking for food after visiting the bars. But Bon Mi looks poised to become a favorite spot for many UO students regardless.

The restaurant is open from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. It’s also a partner of HungryDucks.com, which is a food delivery service in Eugene. 

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