Dolores Huerta, a pioneering labor organizer and civil rights icon who co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) with Cesar Chavez in the 1960s and 70s, died on Wednesday in her Bakersfield home, according to a statement released by her family. She was 96.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has passed away today,” the statement said.
An inspiration to generations of Americans, Huerta spent decades fighting labor injustices and political, racial and gender inequalities.
Born in New Mexico in April 1930, Huerta grew up in Stockton, California, in the heart of the state’s booming agricultural industry. She was raised by her mother, Alicia, a businesswoman and active member of their agricultural community.
Huerta was best known for her leadership in the UFW, but that dedication extended to her commitment to social and political activism across an array of issues, supporting voting rights, immigrant rights, environmental justice, LGBTQ equality and other social issues. She was arrested more than 25 times for participating in nonviolent civil disobedience activities. At 89 years old, in 2019, she was arrested while participating in a union protest for better pay for home health care workers.
“Her work with farm workers changed our state and our nation. The movement she helped lead was about securing basic human rights for some of the hardest working people among us,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a statement. “Their fight, their struggle, and their victories helped secure landmark protections nationwide, including the first state laws giving farm workers overtime pay after eight hours a day, and the first comprehensive standards to prevent heat deaths in California.”
Despite her numerous contributions to the farmworkers movement, Huerta often took a back seat to the contributions of her longtime activist partner Cesar Chavez. Earlier this year, Huerta said Chavez, who died in 1993, had “manipulated and pressured” her into having sex and, on another occasion, forced her in the 1960s in an investigation published by The New York Times.
“I saw him, again, as my boss, as my hero, as, you know, somebody that would do the impossible,” Huerta told The New York Times. “I never talked about it to anybody, and the reason I didn’t is because I just didn’t want to hurt the movement.”
In 1993, Huerta was the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Upon receiving the award, Huerta said, “The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today.”
“We honor her legacy by continuing the fight for farm workers and for dignity and equality for all,” said Bass. “¡Sí, se puede! Rest in power, Dolores. Thank you for everything.”
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