Dolores Huerta, the fiery and resolute activist who helped launch and guide the nation’s first enduring labor union for poor farmworkers before emerging as an enduring symbol for women and the American progressive movement, has died at the age of 96. Erik Olvera, a spokesman for the family, confirmed that Huerta died Wednesday in Bakersfield, surrounded by members of her expansive family. The cause of death was cancer.
Throughout a life spanning nearly a century, Huerta maintained an unwavering commitment to economic equity, campaigning for working people long past retirement age. As the emotional compass of the United Farm Workers of America for decades, the mother of 13 achieved singular stature as a proto-feminist trailblazer, a principal architect of the Chicano power movement, and a towering figure in American labor history.
Huerta’s tireless crusading for the dispossessed made her a potent partner to UFW co-founder César Chávez. Their collaboration began in 1961 after Chávez called Huerta to his East Los Angeles home to declare that they needed to start a union. Both soon moved their families to the Kern County farm town of Delano, where Huerta became the driving force behind grassroots recruitment, contract negotiations, and organizing pickets. She turned the rallying cry “Sí, se puede!” into an iconic mantra for the American left.
Yet the relationship between Huerta and Chávez was marked by profound complexities and internal conflicts. In March 2026, late in her life, Huerta revealed that Chávez had twice forced sex on her, resulting in two pregnancies, and stated that she had remained silent for six decades to protect the farmworker movement. Historians and associates also documented a volatile working dynamic, including shouting matches and purges within the union as Chávez demanded absolute loyalty.
Huerta’s contributions to labor milestones were foundational. She helped negotiate the historic 1966 contract with the Schenley Wine Co., one of the first labor agreements obtained directly by farmworkers with an agricultural enterprise. She endured grueling conditions, organized national boycotts, and faced down violent anti-union forces. Her physical fearlessness was matched by a demanding temperament that alienated some colleagues even as it inspired countless activists.
In 1968, Huerta was standing near Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when the presidential candidate was assassinated. Two decades later, during a 1988 peaceful protest against then-Vice President George H.W. Bush in San Francisco, a police officer struck her with a club, rupturing her spleen and nearly killing her. She later secured an $850,000 settlement from the city.
After stepping back from full-time union operations in the late 1980s, Huerta redirected her energy toward women’s rights, community organizing, and Democratic Party politics. She established the Dolores C. Huerta Foundation, which supported educational mentoring, children’s arts camps, and disaster relief. In 2012, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
In 2025, one of her nonprofits broke ground on the $35-million Dolores Huerta Peace & Justice Cultural Center in Bakersfield, a facility largely funded by the state of California designed to train future generations of community organizers. Even into her nineties, she continued to participate in demonstrations, advocating for home healthcare workers and registering voters.
Olvera stated that the family would announce details regarding a public memorial in the coming days.
