What happened
Dolores Huerta, a labor organizer and civil rights figure who helped found the United Farm Workers, has died at age 96, according to CBS News. Her family announced the death in a statement posted on social media through her foundation, which is based in Bakersfield, California. The family said she died Wednesday at home.
The family asked for privacy, saying "we ask for privacy as we grieve this incredible loss to our family." They added that they knew many people around the world were mourning with them.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who counted Huerta as a close friend, ordered flags lowered to half-staff in her honor. "Dolores represented the best of us," Newsom said in a statement.
A life organizing farmworkers
Huerta was born in 1930 in New Mexico. Her father worked as a miner and union activist and later won election to the state Legislature. After her parents divorced when she was 3, her mother brought the children to California, where Huerta grew up among working families of many backgrounds. She credited her mother, who ran a restaurant and a hotel, with teaching her about independence, compassion and activism.
She was an elementary school teacher in the San Joaquin Valley when she turned to organizing. In a 2017 PBS Independent Lens documentary, she explained the decision: "I couldn't stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes." She said she believed she could accomplish more by organizing farmworkers than by teaching their children.
Her work with a civil rights group in Stockton brought her together with Chavez. In 1962 they launched the National Farm Workers Association, which a few years later became the United Farm Workers of America. Huerta was a central negotiator for the union. She joined Filipino grape pickers on the picket line during the five-year Delano Grape Strike. She and Chavez secured contracts with large growers, including the first health and benefit plans for farmworkers.
By directing nationwide grape and lettuce boycotts in the early 1970s, she helped build the pressure that led California to pass the first state law recognizing farmworkers' right to bargain collectively. She also lobbied for financial aid for unemployed farmworkers and disability insurance for them, spoke against toxic pesticides, and opposed federal guest worker programs.
Arrests, injury and later campaigns
Huerta was jailed 22 times for union demonstrations. In 1988 she was badly hurt while protesting George H.W. Bush's opposition to the UFW grape boycott during a San Francisco visit. A police baton struck her in a crowd, breaking three ribs and ruining her spleen, and she needed more than a dozen blood transfusions. She later settled her claims with the city.
In 1968 she met Sen. Robert Kennedy and volunteered for his presidential campaign, registering Mexican American voters. She was onstage when he thanked her publicly shortly before he was shot. CBS News reported that the killing devastated her but did not stop her organizing.
After recovering from the 1988 injury, she traveled to promote women's rights and urged Latinas to seek office. She campaigned for Democratic presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Her 2016 endorsement of Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders drew criticism from actor Rosario Dawson, who said Huerta had become "an instrument of the establishment." The two later reconciled.
Honors and tributes
Obama presented Huerta with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. She was the first Latina inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and received nine honorary doctorates. Schools in California, Texas and Colorado carry her name.
Her rallying cry, "Sí se puede," translates to "Yes, it can be done." Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it "inspired generations of Americans to believe in the power of collective action." Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called Huerta's legacy "proof of what ordinary people can accomplish when they organize." Bill Clinton described her as a "stalwart champion of working Americans."
Her son Emilio Huerta, one of her 13 children, said it took courage to build a farmworker union and challenge agriculture, which he called a powerhouse to this day.
The disclosure about Chavez
Earlier this year, Huerta said that Chavez sexually abused her in the 1960s and that the abuse resulted in the birth of two children. She had kept it secret for 60 years, including long after his death. CBS News reported that the revelation shook the Latino community.
She said she stayed silent out of fear that speaking up would damage her life's work and undo gains made for workers. Asked about it in an interview with Latino USA, she said, "It was my personal pain, it was my personal problem and, you know, I think it was worth it because it was my cross to bear."
From the early 1970s, Huerta's partner was Richard Chavez, Cesar's brother, and they had four children together. She also had seven children from two earlier marriages.
