My father was a member of the Teamsters Union in California

“My father was a member of the Teamsters Union in California, where he helped to organize better health care for workers. My mother worked for more than 20 years on an assembly line.” Thus spoke Hilda Solis, a daughter of labor, whose words carry the rhythm of hammers and the heartbeat of working people. In this simple recollection, there lies a story older than empires — the story of dignity born through toil, of families who built nations not with wealth or privilege, but with honor, endurance, and solidarity. It is not merely a remembrance of parents; it is a tribute to all who labor unseen, whose hands sustain the world.

In the ancient teachings, the worker was often seen as sacred — the craftsman, the builder, the weaver of human prosperity. The ancients said that the gods themselves labored in creation, shaping the stars from chaos, carving rivers through the earth. To work, then, was to participate in the divine order of the universe. Hilda Solis’s father, a member of the Teamsters Union, stood within that same lineage — a man who did not seek wealth for himself but justice for others. His struggle to organize better health care for workers was more than a political act; it was an act of love, born from the truth that a community is only as strong as the care it offers its weakest.

Her mother, too, stands as an emblem of quiet heroism — a woman who spent twenty years on an assembly line, performing the patient, precise labor that powers modern life. In her steady hands, we see the strength of countless women throughout history who built not monuments or armies, but the daily stability upon which families depend. Such work, though humble in the eyes of the proud, carries immense sacredness. For it is through the constancy of the ordinary that societies endure. The mother’s endurance and the father’s advocacy together formed the forge from which Hilda Solis herself would rise — a leader shaped not by privilege, but by purpose.

Their story mirrors the epic tale of the labor movement, which has often been a battlefield not of weapons, but of wills. There was a time — not long past — when workers in factories, mines, and fields lived under conditions of exhaustion and peril. It was through the courage of men and women like Solis’s parents that change was wrestled from indifference. The Teamsters Union, born of such courage, became a shield for the laborer — a symbol of the truth that when the many stand together, they can confront the power of the few. In those long struggles for health care, fair wages, and dignity, the workers became the architects of their own liberation.

One can hear the echo of similar courage in the story of César Chávez, who walked the fields of California not as a master, but as a servant of his people. He too fought for the laborer’s right to health, rest, and respect. His cry of “Sí, se puede” — “Yes, it can be done” — was the same spirit that guided the hands of Solis’s father and the steadfast heart of her mother. Together, they formed an unbroken chain of sacrifice and hope, linking generations of workers across time and place.

But Hilda Solis’s quote speaks not only of the past; it speaks of a duty that remains. The forces that threaten the dignity of labor have not vanished — they have only changed their form. Automation, exploitation, and inequality still shadow the modern worker. Thus, her remembrance is a warning: never forget the hands that build your comfort. Health care, fair wages, safety, and respect are not luxuries to be granted by the powerful, but rights earned by those who labor with honesty and faith. To protect these rights is to honor the legacy of every parent who worked without rest, every soul who believed that justice was worth the struggle.

The lesson is clear, my children of the future: revere the dignity of work, and remember always that progress is not born from ease, but from sacrifice. Let no one’s labor go unseen or unrewarded. Support those who fight for fairness in your time — the nurses, the teachers, the builders, and all who give of themselves so that others may live in comfort. For to uplift the worker is to uplift humanity itself.

Thus, remember the words of Hilda Solis, not as nostalgia but as prophecy: “My father was a member of the Teamsters Union... my mother worked for more than twenty years on an assembly line.” In these lives, we glimpse the soul of all that is noble in humankind — perseverance, compassion, and courage. Carry their spirit within you. Defend the dignity of work. And when you rise, remember to reach back for those who still labor, that the circle of justice may remain unbroken.