The Woman Who Invented 'Sí, Se Puede': The Dolores Huerta Story
Forbes Talks
Forbes Media LLC
5 • 4 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In conversation at the 2025 Forbes Power Women's Summit Dolores Huerta speaks with Forbes Women Senior Editor Maggie McGrath.
Dolores Huerta has been a relentless force for change for over half a century. As a co-founder of the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, she was instrumental in organizing the Delano grape strike and gave the movement its iconic rallying cry, "Sí, se puede." Her activism evolved to champion feminist causes, and today, through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she remains a powerful voice in Democratic politics, supporting immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, and the nation's most vulnerable communities.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Delores Sverta, you are a civil rights icon. Thank you so much for joining us at the Forbes |
| 0:08.1 | Power Women Summit. |
| 0:09.1 | Well, you know, my youngest son says, Mom, you're not an icon, you're an I can. |
| 0:14.0 | An I can. |
| 0:15.0 | Because you can do anything? |
| 0:16.7 | Well, because I can do as much as I possibly can. I set my mind to it, and I think that's what the |
| 0:22.6 | form is about women that can. |
| 0:25.9 | Women that can. You coined the phrase, the catchphrase, Si se Puey, which a lot of our viewers |
| 0:33.3 | might recognize in its English translation, yes we can, thanks to a politician that stole it from you. |
| 0:39.9 | Did Barack Obama get yes we can from you? |
| 0:42.5 | Yes, he did. |
| 0:44.3 | And the first time I met President Obama, he said, I stole your slogan, and I said, yes, you did. |
| 0:50.9 | What drove you to say, si se puiere for the first time? |
| 0:56.0 | What turned that into your catchphrase? |
| 0:59.0 | Well, I met with a group of professional Latinos and we were doing a campaign in Arizona. |
| 1:04.0 | We see the child had been fasting for many, many days and asked them to please support us. |
| 1:10.0 | And they said, no, in Arizona, you can't do this |
| 1:12.7 | only in California. And I said, no, yes, you can in California. See Sepweb in California. And that's how |
| 1:19.1 | started. As you reflect on your career, you are 95 years old. Is there an accomplishment that you |
| 1:25.3 | think about today that stands out among the others or a victory |
| 1:28.4 | that you've been reflecting on? |
| 1:30.0 | Well, I'm a member of the Pembant's Majority Foundation, and we started a Feminization |
... |
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