![]() Then Dolores responded, “Si, si se puede!” (“Yes, yes, it can be done”).ĭolores immediately picked up the call and made the slogan the rallying cry for the farm workers’ campaign in Arizona.įollowing Cesar’s 1972 fast, during which he became so weak he was hospitalized, the UFW mobilized thousands of labor, religious and community activists, and collected enough signatures to force an election to recall Governor Williams. “No, no se puede!” (“No, no it can’t be done”), they kept repeating in Spanish. Cesar and Dolores silently listened while they explained why the fast and efforts by farm workers would be fruitless. The leaders offered a refrain Cesar and Dolores heard many times: The grower lobby that dominated state politics, the Legislature and governor was so powerful, these Latino leaders declared, it couldn’t be beaten. Resting on his back in a small room, with UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta by his side, Cesar was briefed by a group of local Latino labor and political leaders about political realities in the state. When news of the law’s enactment reached him, Cesar returned to Arizona and began a 25-day water-only fast. In response to a protest by farm workers, the governor remarked, “ As far as I’m concerned, those people don’t exist.” Instead, the governor ordered state troopers to bring him the bill and he signed it within an hour after passage. ![]() The United Farm Workers asked to meet with Republican Governor Jack Williams, to appeal for him to veto the legislation. ![]() In May 1972, a decade after Cesar Chavez founded the union, the Legislature in his native state of Arizona pushed through a bill sponsored by agribusiness denying farm workers the right to strike and boycott during harvest seasons, and effectively making it impossible for them to organize.
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