03/19/2026
Stockton Stands calls for renaming our Stockton schools and facilities from Cesar Chavez to Dolores Huerta.
Dolores Huerta has suffered in silence for over 60 years, carrying the weight of a truth that she feared may break the farm workers movement that she helped build. Unfortunately, her story is not unique and reflects the broader pattern experienced by countless women across organizing spaces, including those in our very own community. For far too long, women have endured harm, erasure, and silencing at the hands of men within movements that claim to fight for liberation. The patriarchy forces this fear to become a political mechanism. Speaking out against violence risks destabilizing the movement, discrediting its leadership, or providing am******on to its opposition. Silence becomes a strategy of survival.
The patriarchy doesn’t disappear in liberatory spaces- it adapts. The same gendered hierarchies and misogyny of the outside world presents itself in subtler but equally harmful ways. Leadership becomes male dominated, women’s labor becomes invisible and undervalued, and credibility is unevenly distributed. Men are seen as visionaries and decision makers, while women are expected to organize, nurture, and sustain- without recognition or power. When harm occurs, it’s minimized as a distraction from “the real work.”
This creates a painful reality for women: spaces meant to liberate reproduce oppression. Women are asked to prioritize the collective over themselves, endure discomfort or abuse for the “greater good,” and to protect movements that don’t always protect them in return. Accountability is sacrificed in the name of unity and liberation exists only for men.
To truly build liberatory spaces, movements must confront the patriarchy within, not just the systems outside of them. Stockton Stands urges all organizations to disrupt harmful dynamics internally, center the voices of women, and redefine what leadership, safety, and accountability look like.
We urge everyone to sign the petition to rename our schools and facilities to Dolores Huerta. By doing so, we signal our community’s commitment to building a culture that prioritizes the social, emotional, and physical safety for every member of our community. We demand our elected officials to build a more trauma informed and inclusive city for the dignity of human rights in Stockton, CA.
bit.ly/HDPetition
