Dolores Huerta, Farmworker Movement Co-Founder and Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 96

Dolores Huerta, the labor leader and civil rights advocate who helped build the modern farmworker movement, has died at the age of 96. Her family announced her death on Instagram on Wednesday.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has passed away today," the family wrote. They asked for privacy while they grieve, noted that many people around the world share in their mourning, and said plans to recognize and celebrate her life and legacy will follow. The New York Times reported that she died of cancer at her home in Bakersfield.

Huerta was born April 10, 1930, in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico. She later moved to Stockton, California, with her mother and brothers. While working as an elementary school teacher, she saw how poorly farmworker families lived. She began volunteering with the Community Service Organization, where she met Cesar Chavez.

In 1962, Huerta and Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, which grew into the United Farm Workers. They helped organize the 1965 Delano grape strike. The effort culminated in a march of roughly 300 miles from Delano to Sacramento, carried out mostly by Mexican American and Filipino workers from March 17 to April 10, 1966. Students, clergy, union organizers and civil rights workers joined along the way.

By the end of the march, the group had secured its first union contract. Supporters described the victory as the beginning of La Causa. The effort also fueled a worldwide boycott that brought better working conditions, clean water, rest periods and union representation. Huerta was arrested 22 times in nonviolent protests.

For decades, Huerta and Chavez were closely linked as labor leaders. This year, however, she revealed that Chavez had raped her decades earlier. She was one of several women who accused him of sexual abuse, and some said the assaults happened when they were underage. Chavez died in 1993. "I never talked about it to anybody, and the reason I didn't is because I just didn't want to hurt the movement," Huerta told the New York Times.

Her advocacy also centered on immigration reform, a key concern for farmworkers, since so many had come from Latin America to work in California's Central Valley. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. She continued her work through the Dolores Huerta Foundation in Bakersfield. When she turned 95 in April 2025, Los Angeles County proclaimed a day in her honor. According to a legislative resolution honoring her, she was the mother of 11 children.

Family spokesperson Erik Olvera told The San Francisco Standard in a brief phone call Wednesday morning that the relatives were focusing on supporting one another in their grief.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi paid tribute in a statement. "Dolores was a dear friend, and we all responded to her rallying cry, 'Sí se puede,' which inspired generations of Americans to believe in the power of collective action," she said. She added that she hoped it would comfort the family that so many mourn their loss and are praying for them.