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Dolores Huerta obituary
Dolores Huerta, the farm workers’ rights organiser who helped build the United Farm Workers into a national force, has died aged 96. Though union president Cesar Chavez was its public face, Huerta helped organise strikes and consumer boycotts that challenged California’s powerful grape growers. Her slogan “Sí, se puede!” later inspired Barack Obama’s “Yes, we can”.
Born in New Mexico to a family shaped by labour activism, Huerta became a community organiser after leaving teaching in 1955. She helped form the National Farm Workers Association with Chavez and Gilbert Padilla in 1962; after joining Filipino workers in the 1965 Delano grape strike, the group became the United Farm Workers, with Huerta as vice-president. She later disclosed that Chavez had pressured and raped her, saying she kept silent because securing farm workers’ rights was her life’s work.
In short
- Dolores Huerta has died aged 96.
- She helped organise the United Farm Workers.
- Her slogan inspired “Yes, we can”.
Explained simply
California’s farms relied on workers who often faced low pay and difficult conditions. In the 1960s, Mexican American and Filipino farm workers organised to press for better treatment, including through strikes and boycotts that asked shoppers not to buy certain produce.
Dolores Huerta helped build the United Farm Workers alongside Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla. Chavez was its best-known leader, while Huerta organised campaigns and negotiations; the union became a significant force in farm labour politics. Her Spanish-language slogan “Sí, se puede!” means “Yes, it can be done” and later helped inspire Barack Obama’s campaign phrase.
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