Some years back, I had the privilege of hosting in our home Delores Huerta, co-founder with Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers movement. I asked her about the history behind her famous expression that has long since gone viral, “¡Si se puede!” “Yes, we can!” Surprisingly, she shared another story that had inspired her expression in an altogether different context. She recounted the story of Jessie Lopez de la Cruz, one of the first female farm labor organizers in the movement, was born in 1919 in Southern CA. Jessie lived her whole life as a migrant worker. From age 5 on she worked in the fields pruning vines, picking oranges, beets, cotton and grapes.

Years later, after she retired, Jessie de la Cruz recounts how in those early years before the Farm Workers movement began, her fellow workers were losing all hope. These migrant families were being worked to death for dollars a day, forced to live in horrible conditions, and the corporate farms and farmers were loath to offer a living wage, much less any other benefits. In desperation, she cried out to them, “¡No se puede!” No, we can’t!  We just can’t lose hope!  ¡La Esperanza muere última!” “Hope Dies Last.”