For three decades the Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year Awards have honored women game-changers, leaders, rule breakers, and trailblazers. This year’s class of exceptional women features mostly women of color and includes none other than 90-year-old Latina revolutionary Dolores Huerta.
If you’ve ever muttered the phrase “si, se puede” (yes, we can) you have Huerta to think. She coined the term in 1972 long before President Barack Obama used the slogan on his campaign trail. Don’t worry, he didn’t co-opt the phrase. In 2012, Obama awarded Huerta with the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian award.
We’re endlessly grateful for Huerta’s work as a labor leader who fought to ensure farmworkers received US labor rights. Huerta co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with César Chávez.
The Latina grassroots organizer is the recipient of Glamour’s Lifetime Achievement Woman of the Year award. She has been raising awareness for important causes for over 65 years including women’s rights, civil rights, immigration rights, migrant rights, labor rights, and more. The activist has no intention of halting her fight for progress even as she enters her 90s and empowers youth organizers through the Dolores Huerta Foundation. “We have to just tell the young people to be patient. The one thing is not to give up. They have to keep their eye on the prize,” she told Glamour.
The women “Guardians of Elmhurst” essential workers also received the honor including 52-year-old Dominican Meida Sanchez. She has been cleaning rooms at the Queens hospital for over a decade. From 7 a.m. she scrubs the rooms and interacts with patients. She’s known as the hospital’s “prayer lady” and is often overheard telling patients, “You are not alone. You are safe. We are here. Don’t be afraid.”
Huerta and Sanchez are in excellent company in the 2020 Glamour Women of the Year series which also includes actress Regina King, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms, and more.
