Labor Activist And Civil Rights Icon Dolores Huerta Dies At 96

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of what became the United Farm Workers (UFW) union — the first nationally recognized union for farmworkers — has died at age 96.

According to the New York Times, Huerta passed away Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, California. Erik Olvera, a spokesman for her family, told the Times she died of cancer.

Huerta — born on April 10, 1930,  in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico — was the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993, and in 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by former President Barack Obama. According to NBC News, Matthew J. Garcia — the Dartmouth College professor who wrote the 2014 book, From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement — called the Mexican-American activist “the most famous Latina that has ever been in the labor movement.”

“Without any negotiating experience, Dolores helped lead a worldwide grape boycott that forced growers to agree to some of the country’s first farm worker contracts, and ever since, she has fought to give more people a seat at the table,” Obama said in 2012, recalling pivotal moments during Huerta’s harrowing years of service in labor activism. “And on a personal note, Dolores was very gracious when I told her I had stolen her slogan, ‘sí, se puede,’ or ‘yes, we can.’ Knowing her, I’m pleased that she let me off easy, because Dolores does not play.”

Huerta founded what was originally called the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) — before it merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the UFW — in 1966 with famed labor leader Cesar Chavez, who has been memorialized as an iconic civil rights activist since his death in 1993.

Earlier this year, we reported that a New York Times investigation revealed the shocking news that Chavez had been accused of sexually assaulting Huerta in the 1960s, and of raping and sexually abusing two underage girls in the 1970s. In May, Huerta revealed that she was “manipulated and pressured into having sex” with her late colleague. She said she broke her silence when she did, largely because the report by the Times “indicated that I was not the only one – there were others.”

“I can no longer stay silent and must share my own experiences,” she said at the time.

But Huerta won’t be remembered for what she said Chavez did to her and others; she’ll be remembered as the Mexican American folk hero who has been depicted in murals and ballads, and celebrated alongside some of the most iconic and influential civil rights leaders in U.S. and world history.

After stepping down as an officer of her union in 1999, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation in 2003 to “create networks of healthy, organized communities pursuing social justice through systemic and structural transformation.” As recently as 2004, she was vocal about the state of U.S. politics, declaring that “fascism and voter suppression is real,” according to NBC.

“But my optimism comes from knowing that we, the people, have the power to change things; if we organize, if we vote, and when we elect representatives who will enact policies that benefit all people.”

Dolores Huerta is survived by her 11 children: two daughters she had with her first husband, Ralph Head; five children she had with her second husband, Venturo Huerta; and four she had with her longtime partner, Richard Chavez (brother of Cesar), who died in 2011.

Rest well, Dolores. You were a gift to this world, and you will not be forgotten.

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