Inspirational Quotes by Dolores Huerta (American Labor Activist)

Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta (b.1930) is a Mexican-American labor organizer and civil rights activist. With Cesar Chavez, she founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later joined with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers (UFW.)

Born in Dawson, New Mexico, and raised among poor immigrant laborers, Huerta was one of the organizers of the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers’ contract created after the strike. In response to Huerta’s work, the U.S. Congress passed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, giving farm workers the right to unionize.

Huerta was arrested twenty-two times for her union activities. In 1988, she was severely beaten by a San Francisco police officer at a demonstration against pesticides during a rally for presidential candidate George H. W. Bush.

Huerta continued to work for civil rights and justice even into her seventies. She is the subject of many corridos (Mexican or Mexican-American ballads) and murals. Biographies include John Gregory Dunne’s The Story of the California Grape Strike (1976.) Peter Bratt made the documentary Dolores (2018) chronicling Huerta’s life and achievements.

Huerta is the originator of the phrase, “Sí, se puede,” Spanish for “Yes, it is possible” or, roughly, “Yes, we can,” which was adopted by President Barack Obama during his campaign for the 2004 Illinois elections to the U.S. Senate, and his 2008 presidential campaign.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Dolores Huerta