“Si se puede, si se puede!” became a chanting echo in the 1970s from the United Farm Workers of America when they fought for higher wages and Cesar Chavez was at the forefront of the fight.
Dolores Huerta, the woman behind the famous slogan “Si se puede!” and a labor leader fighting alongside Chavez, made a special visit to Golden Valley High School on Friday and connected with students, encouraged them to dream big, pursue higher education, and advocate for issues they believe in.
Erika Cedeño, Golden Valley High School World Language Department chair and Spanish teacher, often boasts to her husband Eduardo Cedeño about how much she loves to work at the school.
Eduardo recently began working with the Dolores Huerta Foundation as the finance director and would talk about his wife to Huerta and how much she loves her job and her Golden Valley High School community.
“My husband was talking about my happiness here because I’m very happy. This is my happy place,” Erika said. “My husband was bragging about me, I was teacher of the year, and Dolores [asked], ‘Oh seriously? What is this school?’ and [he responded], ‘It’s Golden Valley,’ and she said, ‘I want to go.’”
Huerta was welcomed to the Golden Valley theater with special performances by the school’s band and ballet folklorico program and given the William S. Hart Union High School District One Hart Award for her courage during the labor movement.
“Education … it’s really important that we encourage young people to try to go to college … we have to really encourage young people to think something that you might want to do in the future, something that you love to do. Follow your heart,” Huerta said to the students, teachers and staff present. “To all the teachers, I want to say to you, you know our job is to encourage. When I was in high school, some of my teachers did not encourage us.”
She added: “We don’t want to discriminate against anybody, and we do not want to discriminate against anybody because of the color of their skin … let’s stop the racism altogether.”
Huerta also advised students to become proactive in their communities and advocate for change if they are unhappy with the current circumstances.
Huerta’s efforts over the years have earned her awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998, and induction into the California Hall of Fame in 2013, among others.
Golden Valley Principal Sal Frias recalled a time when he was a young boy growing up in Northern California and how he was destined to be a field worker — a lot of similarities to Huerta’s upbringing — but with the encouragement of his mother, he paved his own way and pursued education and is now principal of the school.
“Humble beginnings,” he said. “I’m proud of who I am, I’m proud of where I came from. [Huerta] just reminds me of that. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed. It is what it is.”
“My priority has always been to give students in the minority groups here at Golden Valley role models to look up to. People that look like them, women, people in leadership roles, to be figures of inspiration and just an idea or a belief that they can do something,” Frias said.
Golden Valley has a total of 2,000 students, 60% of whom are Hispanic, 20% are Caucasian, 10% are Asian, and 10% are African American, he added.
“I think being a young Latina woman who’s in leadership, it means a lot to see the older generations and see what came before us as a way to kind of progress,” said Golden Valley senior Madison Castillo, who wears numerous hats in extracurricular programs at the school. “Someone like her, who’s a little bit older and still able to come here and speak about her ideas, her beliefs, and continued to be passed on.”
