Celebration of 2022 Leadership Award recipient Camila Chávez
Camila Chávez, Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), was recently named as one of the 2022 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award recipients. The Award comes with a $250,000 grant and other resources – including a mural commemorating DHF’s work created by artist and Bakersfield native Brandon Thompson. DHF’s mural was unveiled during a brief program on March 25, where the Leadership Award was also presented to Camila Chávez.
Watch the Livestream:
Presenters:
- Mona Pasquil Rogers — Member, James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards Selection Committee
- The Honorable Rudy Salas — Assemblymember, California Assembly District 32
- The Honorable Leticia Perez — Supervisor, Kern County Board of Supervisors District 5
- Camila Chávez — Co-Founder & Executive Director, Dolores Huerta Foundation
- Brandon Thompson — Muralist and Bakersfield native
- Dolores Huerta — Co-Founder and President, Dolores Huerta Foundation
About the Mural:
‘untitled’ is a transformation in East Bakersfield, which celebrates the Delores Huerta Foundation’s generational impact on the community for almost 20 years. However interpreted, this mural celebrates youth empowerment, civic engagement, the power of voting, the rich farming and agriculture community, education, and unity. “We are each other’s harvest”‘ is represented by a Latinx/Punjabi/Black Farmer harvesting crops, with people emerging (we painted the face in a way to keep interpretation open). Sprinkled throughout are protest signs as a hard visual of civic engagement. The youth at the podium represents youth empowerment, with generational support at their side. At the right bottom – everyone’s voting! Delores informs the people with a megaphone in hand, at far right. The mural is flanked with a greyscale abstract, cascading down the left and right, highlighting Bakersfield’s blended city and agriculture scene. We also thought it would be cool to give the palm tree some friends!