Rhetorical Analysis Of Dolores Huerta

For years the LGBT community has been consistently denied the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts, and it wasn’t until last year that same sex marriage became legal throughout the United States. However, they are not the only minorities being discriminated against in the United States. That is why Dolores Huerta, a well-known civil rights activist, points out that people who have experienced oppression should come together to achieve equality. In her keynote speech at the 21st National Conference on LGBT Equality, Dolores Huerta uses ethos, logos, and pathos as an effective way to inspire her audience to make a change in society. Dolores Huerta starts off her speech by establishing her credibility. “I know that we have been through

“By the way, for those of you that don 't know… I actually invented the term "Si se puede." Si se puede is yes we can in Spanish, and when I met Obama, he said, "I stole your slogan." And I told him, Yes, you did." As some of you know, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan was “Yes We Can.” Coincidentally, a chant often used in protests today is “Si se puede,” a term that Huerta herself states that she has created. She once again establishes her credibility by telling her audience that she and President Obama, the United States’ first black president, share the same belief when it comes to change. Ultimately, if Huerta and Obama can inspire change, then so could the

“…by attacking the gay and lesbian transgender movement, by attacking feminists and the right to abortion, the right to choose, by attacking immigrants…” Huerta explains that these “cultural wars” distract the general public from issues such as the wars in the Middle East and an economic recession, which happened around the same time she delivered her speech. Huerta also uses logos to prevent her audience from being discouraged from the opposition that will refuse to accept change. She cites Martin Luther King Jr. as an example of someone who worked hard to discontinue segregation and yet still faced a lot of opposition from those in power. She implies that there will always be people who will try to prevent change from happening, and those people are an organized unit. She reasons that if people who want to achieve equality want to make a difference then they too should be a united