Word Weavers: Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta (1930-present) is one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century and a leader of the Chicano civil rights movement. She helped found the organization now known as United Farm Workers and helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965. She is credited for coming up with the rallying cry “Sí, se puede,” which means “yes, we can” in Spanish.

For Further Reading: 

• Dolores Huerta, renowned American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union alongside Cesar Chavez.
• Dolores Huerta: The Civil Rights Icon Who Showed Farmworkers 'Sí Se Puede' : The Salt : NPR
• Dolores Huerta’s Story: Community Organizing, the Chicano Movement and Challenging Gender Norms | Reckoning With Our Racial Past 
• UFW Chronology 

This month, we’re talking about Word Weavers — people who coined terms, popularized words, and even created entirely new languages. These activists, writers, artists, and scholars used language to shape ideas and give voice to experiences that once had no name. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello for Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Wamanica. This month we're talking about word weavers, people
who coined terms, popularized words, and even created entirely new languages.
These activists, writers, artists, and scholars used language to shape
ideas and give voice to experiences that once had no name.

(00:23):
In the nineteen sixties, farm workers in California erupted in
a grassroots movement to fight for better working conditions. With
multi year boycotts and marches over hundreds of miles long,
the United farm Workers captivated the world with their protest.
You might be familiar with its slogan Ci sipuere, meaning
yes we can. But do you know the woman who
coined it? Let's meet Dolores Guerta. Dolores was born on

(00:50):
April tenth, nineteen thirty in Dawson, New Mexico, a small
town nestled in the mountains in the north of the state.
While today it's considered a ghost town, Dawson was once
a booming mining city that thousands of people, including Dolores,
called home. Her father, Juan, was a farm worker and
miner by trade, as well as a union activist who
went on to win a seat in the New Mexico Legislature.

(01:12):
But it's her mother, Alicia, who Dolores cites as a
primary source of inspiration. When Dolores was three years old,
her parents divorced. She moved with her mother and two
brothers to Stockton, California, where she'd spend the bulk of
her childhood and early adult life. In Stockton, Alicia was
known as a compassionate businesswoman, active in community affairs and

(01:32):
civic organizations. She owned a restaurant and hotel, welcoming in
farm workers and lower wage workers to offer them affordable
lodging and meals. Dolores's community in Stockton was brimming with
working class families of Mexican, Filipino, African, American, Japanese, and
Chinese descent. Growing up, she watched as her peers and
neighbors faced consistent racial profiling, police brutality, labor exploitation, and discrimination.

(01:57):
Dolores faced that bias firsthand. One time, a school teacher
accused her of cheating because her essays were too well written.
But Dolores never let society's perceptions dim her potential. After
graduating high school, she attended college and earned a provisional
teaching credential. She put it to use and gave back
to the community she came up in. Dolores taught the

(02:19):
children of farm workers, but day in and day out,
she couldn't shake the feeling that her students deserved more.
Her students came to school hungry, sometimes without shoes on
their feet. The school principle referred to farm worker families
as degenerates. Delores knew farm workers. She knew that they
were incredibly hard working and yet did not receive the
compensation or respect they deserved. Catalyzed by her anger, Dolores

(02:43):
left teaching to work for the Stockton Community Service Organization,
which was dedicated to improving economic conditions for the Latino community.
Dolores's time at the CSO marked the start of her
activist career and introduced her to an important partner in
her fight for farm workers' rights activists. Says our childz Cessar,
was the CSO's executive director. He and Dolores quickly realized

(03:05):
that they shared a common vision. They wanted to build
a farm labor justice movement, but the CSO was not
aligned with their mission, so they left the organization and
launched the National farm Workers Association in the spring of
nineteen sixty two. Under this new organization, Dolores and Cesar
hit the ground running, conducting outreach with local farm workers
and educating them on the ins and outs of civil rights,

(03:26):
striking and unionization. Some of these farm workers toiled for
wages as low as seventy cents an hour, working all
day through brutal heat without rest or access to toilets
or cold drinking water. In nineteen sixty five, Filipino American
grape workers in Delano, California, decided to strike for higher wages.
They asked the National farm Workers to join their strike.

(03:48):
The strength of the strike grew in numbers, and with
twelve hundred member families on board, the five year Delano
Grape strike began. Worldwide, consumers began boycott in California table
grapes and their growers. At its peak, seventeen million Americans

(04:10):
participated in the strike. Dolores's leadership in this boycott was undermined,
and even some of her fellow organizers saw her a
second to Ceysar. But when Cesar and other men in
the movement decided to march three hundred miles from Delano,
to the Sacramento State Capitol to make a statement. It
was Dolores and other women with their children who maintained

(04:32):
the picket lines. Violence and sexism were a regular reality
at demonstrations, as she later recollected, growers tried to run
her over with their cars, pointed rifles at her, and
sprayed the picket line with sulfur. She was arrested more
than twenty five times and beaten by the police, resulting
in life threatening injuries. In spite of it all, Dolores
kept her eyes on the prize and maintained her commitment

(04:54):
to nonviolent action. By nineteen seventy, when the strike and
boycott ended, the Great Workers signed the her first union
contract negotiated by Dolores, and secured better pay, benefits, and protections.
The work of the UfW in California peaked the interest
of other farm workers across the country. Some wondered if
such a powerhouse movement could be replicated, especially in less

(05:15):
populated states. Dolores was told there was just no way.
It simply could not be done. In Spanish, that translates
to no sipue or no you can't. But for Dolores,
no was not in her vocabulary. She countered the sentiment
saying Si sipuere or yes we can, and the slogan

(05:36):
caught on fast c sipueta became the UFW's trademark and
continues to be widely used in the immigrant rights movement,
but even inspired the campaign slogan of former President Barack
Obama with three words that will ring from coast to

(05:58):
coast from fee yes Wait, who awarded Dolores with the
Medal of Freedom in twenty twelve. Dolores's profound contributions to
the American labor movement secured historic winds for domestic farm
workers and immigrants, leaving lasting provisions that are still in
effect today, like the nineteen seventy five California Agricultural Labor

(06:20):
Relations Act and the nineteen eighty six Immigration Reform and
Control Act. In two thousand and three, she established the
Dolores Wherta Foundation, which supports communities and grassroots social justice organizing.
At the age of ninety five, Dolores is still active
in the labor, women's rights, and racial equality movements, championing
the stance that we can all become activists, and that's

(06:41):
what it will take to secure a better future. All
month we're talking about word weavers. For more information, find
us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks

(07:02):
to Liz Kapell and my favorite sister and co creator.
As always, we're taking a break for the weekend. Talk
to you on Monday with a brand new theme.