Dolores Huerta, farmworker rights icon behind 'Sí, se puede,' dies at 96

The labor organizer who co-founded the United Farm Workers with César Chávez and helped lead the grape boycott died at her home in Bakersfield, California, her foundation said.

Dolores Huerta, the labor organizer and civil rights activist who co-founded what became the United Farm Workers union, died Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, California, the Dolores Huerta Foundation said. She was 96.

Her family asked for privacy and said plans to honor her life would be shared later.

Dolores Huerta with then-Sen. Kamala Harris in 2017 (file photo)

She co-founded the farmworkers' union with César Chávez

Born in 1930 in New Mexico, Huerta moved with her family to Stockton, California, at age 6. In 1962 she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with César Chávez, the forerunner of the United Farm Workers of America. She helped lead the Delano grape strike of 1965 to 1970 and the national grape boycott, which she said led about 17 million Americans to stop buying grapes.

Huerta coined the rallying cry "¡Sí, se puede!" ("Yes, we can!") in Arizona in 1972, during Chávez's 25-day fast. Former President Barack Obama, who adopted the slogan for his 2008 campaign and awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, joked that he had stolen it from her.

She became a voice for women and immigrants

She went on to become a leading figure in the women's and immigrant rights movements, and her foundation works on issues ranging from the school-to-prison pipeline to economic and environmental justice.

In March, after a New York Times investigation into sexual abuse in the farmworkers' movement, Huerta said Chávez had raped her and that the assaults led to the births of two of her children. "I felt that my coming out and saying what occurred would hurt the movement," she said of her long silence.

Tributes pour in from California and beyond

UFW President Teresa Romero said the union mourns Huerta's passing and celebrates her life, adding that the greatest monument to her memory would be for the union she helped found to keep growing. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had planned to visit her that day, said she represented the best of us. Journalist Maria Hinojosa remembered her as "a fighter" who "loved life."

Dolores Huerta, farmworker rights icon behind 'Sí, se puede,' dies at 96

The labor organizer who co-founded the United Farm Workers with César Chávez and helped lead the grape boycott died at her home in Bakersfield, California, her foundation said.