Civil Rights Icon Dolores Huerta to Record Historic Interview at TV Santa Barbara
SANTA BARBARA, CA — June 29, 2026.
TV Santa Barbara will welcome legendary civil rights leader and labor activist Dolores Huerta to its studios on Monday, July 6, for a special recording of Sueños to Success, the acclaimed podcast hosted by educator, author, and youth advocate Dr. Victor Rios.
The interview will be produced at TV Santa Barbara’s community media center and represents a defining moment for local, non-commercial media. It highlights the unique role community television plays in creating space for thoughtful, long-form conversations that are increasingly rare in today’s media landscape.
Since launching Sueños to Success, Dr. Rios has produced more than 30 episodes at TV Santa Barbara, featuring inspiring leaders whose stories encourage resilience, education, and community engagement. Huerta’s appearance represents one of the series’ most significant guests to date.
A Legacy That Continues to Inspire
For more than six decades, Dolores Huerta has been one of America’s most influential advocates for workers’ rights, civil rights, and social justice. Her enduring message, “SÃ, se puede,” has inspired generations and remains a symbol of perseverance, civic engagement, and the power of ordinary people to create meaningful change.
Why Community Media Matters
This interview reflects the essential role of community media: providing a trusted public space where important conversations can take place, be professionally produced, and remain accessible long after the cameras stop rolling. Free from commercial pressures and time constraints, community media doesn’t simply document history, it helps preserve it by ensuring voices that shape our communities can be heard today and archived for future generations.
“Dolores Huerta’s visit represents exactly what community media was created to do,” said Erik Davis, Executive Director of TV Santa Barbara. “TV Santa Barbara provides the space, the production expertise, and the distribution platform for conversations that matter. Dr. Victor Rios has built Sueños to Success into an extraordinary series that preserves stories from remarkable leaders, making them accessible to our community today and for generations to come. We’re honored to help bring this historic conversation to audiences across our television channels and digital platforms.”
Following production, the interview will air on TV Santa Barbara’s two community television channels and be distributed across the organization’s streaming, video-on-demand, YouTube, podcast, and social media platforms, ensuring this historic conversation is accessible throughout Santa Barbara County and beyond.
About TV Santa Barbara
Founded in 1975, TV Santa Barbara is the nonprofit community media center serving Santa Barbara County. As the region’s civic media hub, TVSB empowers residents, nonprofits, educators, students, artists, and public agencies to create and share stories that inform, inspire, and strengthen the community. Through broadcast television, streaming, podcasting, digital media, hands-on production training, and turnkey media production services, TV Santa Barbara ensures that every voice can be heard and every story has the opportunity to find its audience.
Photo Credit: Dolores Huerta by Stephen Lam—San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
