“sí, se puede.” We hear iT aT proTesTs and see iT
written on signs at marches, and it became the rallying cry of
Obama supporters during his 2008 presidential campaign. A
chant of unity and strength, it has been embraced by many
social movements that have brought American democracy
closer to its promise. It signifies the movement for economic
justice and farmworker dignity that Dolores Huerta began
in the 1960s, before many who chant her words today
were even alive.
Born in New Mexico in 1930, Huerta was raised by a
farmworker and union-activist father, and a mother who
welcomed farmworkers into her hotel at reduced rates.
Her parents’ values seeded Huerta’s career in activism: as a
young elementary- school teacher, she saw her students come
to class hungry and in need of shoes, and decided she could
help them best by organizing their farmworker families. By
age 32, she co-founded the National Farm Workers Associa-
tion with Cesar Chavez. And in 1965, she led a grapeworkers’
strike in California that turned into a successful nationwideconsumer boycott of grapes and resulted in better pay, ben-
efits and protections for thousands of workers.
Huerta launched the slogan “Sí, se puede” (“Yes, we can”)
amid farmworker protests in Arizona in 1972 as a demonstra-
tion of her belief in the individual and collective power of work-
ers. For female workers in particular, her role was transfor-
mative. At a time when less than 40% of women were in the
workforce, Huerta insisted that they have an equal voice at
work and in unions, elevated low-wage workers in the wom-
en’s movement and mentored young female activists across
the country. To Huerta, women are never powerless victims,
only leaders and authors of their own stories.
We have been learning from Huerta for decades. She saw a
need to address working poverty at its root, and remains one
of our nation’s greatest labor leaders. When we see injustice,
may we all seek to organize power, as Huerta did, and may
we do so with her unstoppable strength and determination.Poo is the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance1965 | MOVEMENT BUILDERDOLORES HUERTA
BY AI-JEN POOHUERTA WAS A KEY ORGANIZER
OF THE GRAPEWORKERS’ STRIKE
IN CALIFORNIA IN 1965Y OF YALE COLLECTION OF WESTERN AMERICANA, BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY 63