CITY of ALBUQUERQUE
TWENTY FOURTH COUNCIL
COUNCIL BILL NO. R-20-14 ENACTMENT NO. ______________________
SPONSORED BY: Benton, Peña, Borrego
RESOLUTION
title
Renaming Bridge Boulevard Within The Albuquerque City Limits, From 4th Street SW To The West Side Of The Rio Grande River, Avenida Dolores Huerta (Benton, Peña, Borrego)
body
RENAMING BRIDGE BOULEVARD WITHIN THE ALBUQUERQUE CITY LIMITS, FROM 4TH STREET SW TO THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIO GRANDE RIVER, AVENIDA DOLORES HUERTA.
WHEREAS, Dolores Huerta is a co-founder with Cesar Chavez of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW); and
WHEREAS, Dolores Huerta was born into a Mexican immigrant family on April 10th, 1930 in the Mining Town of Dawson, New Mexico to Juan Ferñandez and Alicia Chavez; and
WHEREAS, Dolores as a young girl witnessed the importance of social action and pursuing labor rights. Both of her grandfathers worked as miners in Dawson, and her uncle perished in one of two mine explosions in Dawson that killed over 350 miners. Dolores’s father worked as a miner, farm worker, union activist, and served as a New Mexico State Legislator. In Stockton California when Dolores was 10, her mother helped organize a cannery strike and instilled in Dolores a passion for community and civic engagement; and
WHEREAS, Dolores’s activism began when she was a student and experienced racial biases first-hand, leading her to pioneering civil rights movements in later years, including co-founding the United Farm Workers, becoming a leader in organizing the 1965 Delano Grape Strike and negotiating the groundbreaking workers’ contract that resulted from the strike. In the 1970’s she coordinated a national lettuce boycott and worked to pass the 1975 Agricultural Relations Act, the first law to institute the rights of farm workers to bargain collectively; and
WHEREAS, a phrase Dolores coined, “Sí se puede” (Yes, we can), had two lives - as a rallying cry in the ’60s for Latino workers seeking basic rights, and as the galvanizing political slogan, translated into English, that aided the 2008 election of the first black president of the United States; and
WHEREAS, Bridge Boulevard historically was an east west river crossing that connected west Central Avenue to Yale Boulevard. In 1996 the section of Bridge Boulevard from 4th Street to Yale was renamed Avenida Cesar Chavez, in honor of Dolores’s fellow co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union; and
WHEREAS, renaming segments of Bridge Boulevard after Dolores Huerta honors the life and work of Dolores Huerta in conjunction with that of Cesar Chavez and creates a permanent public reminder of the gains in human dignity achieved for the members of the United Farm Workers through the work of the Union; and
WHEREAS, Bernalillo County completed the public process for changing the name of Bridge Boulevard to Avenida Dolores Huerta, without public opposition, and the County Commission approved a resolution renaming the portion of Bridge Boulevard in the unincorporated County, from the Rio Grande to Isleta Boulevard, Avenida Dolores Huerta; and
WHEREAS, the City of Albuquerque per City Ordinance §6-5-14 can commence the public process to change a street name upon application by any person; and
WHEREAS, the non-profit organization Las Mujeres Inc. submitted a request to the City Engineer to change the name of Bridge Boulevard to Avenida Dolores Huerta from 4th Street west to the County line, where Bridge Boulevard has already been renamed Avenida Dolores Huerta; and
WHEREAS, in November 2019 the City of Albuquerque Planning Department sent notice of the request to adjacent property owners, interested City Departments, and other agencies including private utilities and the US Postal Service and received no comments or objections to the request.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE:
Section 1. In recognition of Dolores Huerta’s contributions to social justice and human rights, Bridge Boulevard from 4th Street SW to the west side of the Rio Grande river is hereby renamed Avenida Dolores Huerta.
Section 2. The Administration is hereby directed to install new street signs reflecting this renaming prior to the Cesar Chavez March and Fiesta on March 28, 2020.
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