Dolores Huerta has been a civil rights and labor leader for 60 years. (Arash Zandi/Neon Tommy)

The East Los Angeles branch of healthcare network AltaMed hosted a press conference Friday that featured Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee and major civil rights figure Dolores Huerta. Huerta is co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, and has told Los Angeles' Latino community they have a civic duty to sign up for Obama's health care overhual, as they represtent about 60% of the state's uninsured.

Covered California and Huerta have collaborated together for an advertising campaign involving a YouTube video and two radio commercials in both English and Spanish encouraging members of the Latino community to sign up for healthcare before the open enrollment deadline of March 31. The commercials are part of a series of events throughout March entitled “Days of Action.”

“We are reaching out in communities to make sure that people get enrolled. This is about making California a better place, insuring Latinos and about insuring all Californians,” said Lee.

March 31 is also the birthday of Huerta’s close ally, Cesar Chavez, which is a state holiday in California, Colorado and Texas, observed as Cesar Chavez Day. Both Huerta and Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers labor union in 1962.

“We are trying to reach out to young people via YouTube and radio ads, which is why we chose those two media platforms,” said Huerta.

READ MORE: Obamacare And California: What You Should Know

Other initiatives are spreading the word about signing up for healthcare. Huerta runs the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which works toward creating social change and improving people’s lives.

“We’re actually part of a larger organization called California Calls. Most recently we’re going to door to door and working with local school district and setting up enrollments where we give people appointments to sign up. Our efforts are working and we’re really happy with that,” said Huerta.

The new healthcare initiative also covers undocumented immigrants, which will give families who have undocumented family members an incentive to sign up for healthcare. However, the Affordable Care Act will not provide expanded coverage for young people who get residency status over the DREAM Act.

A major hurdle to getting members of the Latino community to sign up is the confusion that many of them encounter while trying to sign up.

“It’s all about cutting through the confusion that’s spread by the corporate media. Once we can make them understand that this is something that they can afford then they will want to sign up,” said Huerta.

Across the street from the conference sits the AltaMed Health Insurance Resource Center, where people sign up for healthcare.

“[The Affordable Care Act] has helped me a lot. I had no insurance until I heard about Obamacare, the service is fast, efficient and courteous. My entire family has signed up without any challenges and we’re all happy” said customer Ritha Miranda.

“I have no healthcare right now and my parents and I are here to sign up. A lot of young people neglect the fact that they need healthcare. I will be definitely be referring my friends and family to sign up,” said 25 year old Manny Santiago, who is a part time freight worker.

Individuals earning less than $15,415 and families of four earning less than $31,810 are eligible for expanded healthcare through Medi-Cal and individuals earning between $15,415 to $44,480 and families of four earning between $31,810 to $92,200 are eligible for Covered California. The difference between the two options is that Medi-Cal will have subsidies and Covered California will not.

“It’s really good, since I’ve been without insurance for 8 years and my children are covered as well,” said 26 year old mother-of-two Brenda Salas.

The campaign has stressed that for as many people to get signed up as much as possible, everyone has to get involved. The process of signing up is free by law.

“If we want this to work for everybody, we all have to participate. We have to be responsible citizens and we all have to do our part," said Huerta. "We can’t say that we want to be part of the community and then not do what is expected of us. We have been fighting for civil rights for 60 years and now, all the work has been done, and all that people have to do now is sign up,” said Huerta.

Reach Staff Reporter Arash Zandi here. Follow him on Twitter here.