Nava and Martinez Jitner to Complete Huerta Biopic After Her Death at 96

Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers and popularized the slogan "Sí, se puede," died Wednesday morning at her home in Bakersfield, California, at age 96. A family spokesperson said cancer was the cause. Her death leaves a dramatic feature about her life in the hands of director Gregory Nava and producer Barbara Martinez Jitner, the pair she chose over other filmmakers who had sought her life rights.

Huerta spent more than 70 hours with Nava and Martinez Jitner in her final years, sharing details she had never disclosed to anyone. Nava and Martinez Jitner have been preparing the film for nearly three years. Nava writes and directs; Martinez Jitner co-writes and produces. Huerta introduced Nava to Martinez Jitner and later served as a witness at their wedding. The couple drove to Bakersfield on Tuesday night to say goodbye and were present when she died.

"We were blessed to be by Dolores' side last night in Bakersfield, to say goodbye and stand with her family in love," Nava and Martinez Jitner wrote in a joint statement. They described the project as a trust built over decades of knowing Huerta and her family, adding that they would carry her voice to future generations.

Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernández on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico. Her father worked in coal mines; her mother ran a hotel in Stockton, California, for farmworkers. She taught elementary school for one year before leaving to organize parents. In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez founded the organization that became the UFW, and she helped lead the 1965 Delano grape strike with Larry Itliong. A police officer's baton broke four ribs and ruptured her spleen during a 1988 protest in San Francisco outside a George H.W. Bush fundraiser. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, and California designated April 10 as Dolores Huerta Day in 2018. She was the mother of 11 children.

Nava directed "El Norte" (1983), "Mi Familia," and "Selena" (1997), all three held in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Martinez Jitner has worked with him since "Selena" and became the first Latina to executive produce a primetime network drama with PBS' "American Family" in 2002. In April 2024, when news of the Huerta project was first reported, Huerta said she had spent a year sharing details of her journey and that Nava "has made classic movies that are the most authentic and impactful of our American Latino experience."

In March, Huerta told The New York Times that Cesar Chavez raped her in 1966 in a secluded grape field, a secret she held for 60 years. "My silence ends here," she said.