On June 30, the City of Fresno broke ground for a new park in West Fresno, named for the iconic farm labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, who traveled up from Bakersfield with her daughter Alicia Huerta to attend.
As participants stood in the currently treeless, shadeless lot, the hot sun beating down on them, Huerta reminded everyone that farmworkers work all day in the heat.
The park stands adjacent to an elementary school named after John Steinbeck, whose epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, brought attention to the suffering and exploitation of California farmworkers in the 1930s and was banned at the behest of growers in many Central Valley counties.
My reading of The Grapes of Wrath in high school played an important role in my decision to volunteer with the farmworker movement in the 1970s. And that work, of course, is how I came to meet Dolores Huerta 50 years ago. I wore my Levar Burton “Read Banned Books” t-shirt.
It seemed like everyone wanted to get photos of or with Huerta, as well as autographs. She stayed after the events to accommodate all the requests.
Funded by the City of Fresno and the state, the park was first proposed by Assembly Member Esmeralda Soria (D–Fresno) when she was a Fresno City Council member. Almost $8.5 million of the $12 million budget for the project comes from a Proposition 68 grant.
When completed—by August 2026—the 4.5-acre space will feature futsal and pickleball courts, dog parks, a splash pad and an EV charging station in the parking lot.
