Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta (born in 1930)
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farms Workers, stands by a portrait of herself taken in 1998, at an exhibition about her life held in Los Angeles on April 10, 2014.
Co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America union, Huerta is also the woman behind the movement’s famous slogan, “Sí, se puede.” Outraged by both racial and economic injustice, Huerta was indefatigable in her efforts to advance the wages and working conditions of California’s farmworkers, most of whom were black, Mexican, Filipino, Japanese and Chinese working families. For this work, Huerta was threatened and attacked by farm owners and Teamsters, and beaten up by police.
“When we talk about spiritual forces, I think that Hispanic women are more familiar with spiritual forces,” Huerta once said. “We know what fasting is, and that it is part of the culture. We know what relationships are, and we know what sacrifice is.”
