Dolores Huerta, a prominent labor organizer and civil rights advocate, died at her residence. She was 96 years old. Her family announced the passing through her foundation.
Huerta gained recognition as co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, an organization established in 1962 with César Chavez to address conditions facing agricultural laborers. The union secured significant gains for farmworkers, including the first health and benefit plans negotiated through collective bargaining agreements. Huerta’s most enduring contribution to American political vocabulary was the three-word Spanish phrase “Sí, se puede!”—meaning “Yes, it can be done”—which later became widely adopted in political campaigns and social movements.
Throughout her career, Huerta held leadership roles in multiple causes beyond labor organizing. She campaigned for voting rights among Mexican Americans, advocated for women’s rights and encouraged Latina political participation, fought against pesticide exposure, and supported immigrant amnesty. She was jailed 22 times for protest activities and sustained serious injuries in 1988 when struck by a police officer’s baton during a demonstration, resulting in broken ribs and other complications requiring multiple blood transfusions.
Huerta’s accomplishments earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, presented by former President Barack Obama in 2012. She maintained an active schedule into her 90s, traveling across the country for speaking engagements on issues of race, poverty, and civil rights through her Bakersfield-based foundation. Earlier this year, she disclosed publicly that she had experienced sexual abuse by Chavez decades earlier, a secret she had kept for 60 years.
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