Dolores Huerta

About

Dolores Huerta (Spanish: [d̪oˈloɾes ˈwert̪a] ; born April 10, 1930) is an American labor leader and feminist activist. After working for several years with the Community Service Organization (CSO), she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activists Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla, which eventually merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta joined Filipino leader Larry Itliong in the Delano grape strike in 1965, managing boycott campaigns on the east coast and negotiating with the grape companies to end the strike. Some credit her with inventing the UFW slogan “sí se puede” (transl. ‘yes you can’).
Although she initially opposed certain feminist concepts, such as the right to abortion and contraception, Huerta eventually became a strong proponent of women’s rights. She has worked with the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) to help Latina women become more active and visible in politics, campaigned for women’s reproductive rights, and served as an honorary co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C.
In 2002, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), a civic advocacy…