Labor rights leader Dolores Huerta is speaking in Connecticut next month. The visit comes just weeks after Huerta made international headlines for coming forward about alleged abuse by late activist Cesar Chavez.
Huerta will highlight her decades in activism at the 23rd annual Latinas In Leadership Symposium, formerly known as Latinas and Power.
Huerta, who is 96 years old, is best known as one of the founders of United Farm Workers. The labor union began as part of the mostly Chicano, or Mexican-American, civil rights movement in the ‘60s. Even those unfamiliar with the organization by name typically know its slogan, which Huerta is credited with creating: “Sí se puede,” or “yes, we can.”
Marilyn Alverio is the founder of the Connecticut-based Latinas In Leadership organization. She said voices like Huerta’s are especially critical in this current moment.
“I want this living legend to not sit on the shelf, and I want people to know who she is,” Alverio said. “And that is just part of me making sure that our history is not lost.”
Part of that history is the Delano Grape Strike in 1965. A mostly Filipino farmworkers organization began the strike on California table grape growers. When Huerta’s mostly Mexican association decided to join the movement, the two groups merged to become the United Farm Workers — still active today. The five-year strike led to better wages and protections against the heavy use of pesticides harmful to farmworkers.
Meanwhile, in Connecticut, where tobacco farming was one of the largest agricultural industries in the 1960s, the mostly Puerto Rican workers were unable to get their union recognized.
Alverio said there is sometimes a disconnect between movements across the country, especially over time.
“Huerta is an icon, primarily through the West Coast, and I noticed that a lot of our young people here in the East Coast didn't really know much about her,” Alverio said.
Latina leaders in Connecticut, and beyond
In addition to speakers like Huerta, the annual symposium draws hundreds to the Connecticut Convention Center for speakers, breakout workshops, local Latina vendors and networking. Since 2004, Alverio said more than 20,000 people have come to the event.
Formerly known as Latinas and Power, the brand needed an update, said Alverio.
“We already had the institute named the Latinas in Leadership Institute,” Alverio said. “So now both names are very much aligned with the work that we do.”
That institute is a selective, six-month program for early-to-mid career Latinas from different industries, who, by the end, create a civic engagement-focused capstone project. Alverio said many of the research reports — on topics like the financial savings abilities of Latinas — have been published through industry magazines and a partnership with the University of Connecticut’s Puerto Rican Studies Initiative, which helps conduct surveys and offers independent review services for the resulting research.
The conference theme this year is “atrévete,” or “dare yourself.”
“It is imperative that we dare to put ourselves out there and not just represent our community, our culture, our identity,” Alverio said, “but it is what is going to make the difference of our survival.”
Learn more
The 2026 symposium is on May 28. Tickets are on sale now.
Connecticut Public is a media sponsor of the Latinas in Leadership symposium. Sponsorship is secured independently of the newsroom, which retains full editorial control. (Read Connecticut Public’s editorial independence policy here.)"
