Following up on yesterday’s posting “Yes we can”, on the slogan, Eric Holeman asked on Facebook,
Which came first: “Yes, we can,” or “Si, se puede!”?
The straightforward answer to the question framed this way is “¡Sí Se Puede!”, but a full answer is moderately complex.
The story starts with a 1943 wartime poster (#4 in yesterday’s posting) with the slogan “We Can Do It!” (not “Yes, we can”). Then forward to 1972. From Wikipedia:
Sí, se puede … is the motto of the United Farm Workers. In 1972, during Cesar Chavez’s 24 day fast in Phoenix, Arizona, he and UFW’s co-founder, Dolores Huerta, came up with the slogan.
The phrase has been widely adopted by other labor unions and civil rights organizations and drew widespread political and media attention as a rallying cry during the 2006 U.S. immigration reform protests
… Sí se puede is usually translated in English as “It can be done”, or “Yes you can”. The more literal translation that the United Farm Workers uses is “Yes, it can be done!”
President Barack Obama adopted the English version “Yes, we can!” first during the 2004 Illinois Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate, and it became a slogan of his 2008 presidential campaign.
The Spanish version has been often illustrated, sometimes with the 1943 so-called “Rose the Riveter” image. Here’s another image:
This is by artist Robert Valadez, who
created his own version of the famous World War II poster “Rosie the Riveter” by giving it some Mexicana style.
Valadez chose to combine Rosie the Riveter with La Adelita, a fictional character from the Mexican Revolution because he says both are feminist archetypes that speak to the empowerment of women. (link)
