Dolores Huerta, a towering figure in the American labor movement who co-founded the organization that would become the United Farm Workers, has died at the age of 96.
Huerta’s foundational approach to community organizing was shaped early in her career at the Community Service Organization. There, she met Fred Ross, whom she frequently described for the rest of her life as her “spiritual father.” Ross taught Huerta fundamental community-organizing techniques, instilled in her the importance of voting, and instructed her on how to hold public officials accountable. Ross, who passed away in 1992, was also the first person to mentor both Huerta and Cesar Chavez.
While working with the CSO, Huerta founded the Agricultural Workers Association, spearheaded voter registration drives, and crossed paths with Chavez in 1955 when he was an organizer with the group. Chavez subsequently became the executive director of the CSO in 1959.
In 1962, Huerta and Chavez left the CSO to establish the National Farm Workers Association, which later evolved into the United Farm Workers union, an organization that continues its advocacy for agricultural labor rights today. The two leaders were galvanized to create the association after listening to numerous California farmworkers describe harrowing labor conditions, which included meager wages, an absence of benefits, and a lack of basic necessities such as drinking water and restroom access in the fields.
At the time, the agricultural landscape was heavily influenced by the Bracero Program. Established via a 1942 agreement between the United States and Mexico to bring in Mexican laborers to combat wartime agricultural workforce shortages, the program remained active until 1964.
