Juanita Polendo Ontiveros

“Once Social Change begins, It Cannot be Reversed. You Cannot Uneducate the Person who has Learned to Read. You Cannot Humiliate the Person who Feels Pride. You Cannot Oppress the People who are Not Afraid Anymore.” –Cesar Chavez

Juanita P. Ontiveros, distinguished alumna of Sacramento City College and CSUS, is the Chair of United Farm Workers Support Committee for Northern California. She is also a core and long standing member for over 50 years of the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), an artist’s organization whose mission is to assist and support UFW, Farm Workers and Artists.

Juanita heads the Dolores Huerta Support Network in the Sacramento Valley and Northern California. Juanita started as a Student Organizer, then a Labor and Community Organizer. Cesar Chavez assigned attorney, Diana Lyons, and Juanita to start the UFW Legal Department Appellate Division and the Martin Luther King (MLK) Farm Workers Service Center in Sacramento.

Later on Juanita started working with California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. and today Juanita is the Director of Community Advocacy, Special Projects, and Human Resources for CRLA Foundation. Juanita’s lifetime commitment and dedication has been to the advocacy for equal rights, justice and fair treatment to farm workers and artists.