Dolores Huerta, labor leader who coined 'Sí, se puede,' dies at 96

Dolores Huerta, the labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association and later served as vice president of the United Farm Workers, died at her home in Bakersfield, California, on October 28 at age 96. Her family said she was surrounded by close relatives, and Erik Olvera, a family spokesman, told the Los Angeles Times that cancer was the cause.

Huerta was born in Dawson, New Mexico, in 1930 and moved to Stockton, California, as a child. After earning a degree from Stockton College, later renamed San Joaquin Delta College, she taught elementary school but left teaching after seeing farmworkers' children arrive hungry and without shoes. She later said, "I couldn't stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farmworkers than by trying to teach their hungry children".

In 1962 Huerta and Cesar Chavez co-founded the National Farm Workers Association; it later became the United Farm Workers. Huerta helped organize the Delano Grape Strike in 1965, joining Filipino workers who had walked out over wages, and she directed national boycotts of grapes and lettuce. The pressure from those boycotts helped California pass the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975, the first major farm-labor law outside Hawaii.

Huerta coined the phrase "Sí, se puede," which means "Yes, it can be done." Her foundation's statement described it as an inspiration for workers, women, immigrants and justice movements worldwide. NPR reported that when he was president, Barack Obama joked he had stolen the slogan for his 2008 campaign.

Huerta focused on women farmworkers' safety, helping found the Coalition of Labor Union Women in 1974 and serving as United Farm Workers vice president from the union's founding until 1999. In a 2013 "Frontline" interview, she described documenting sexist remarks at board meetings, saying the count fell from 58 to zero over several meetings. She also worked with the Feminist Majority Foundation to encourage Latinas to run for office.

In March 2026, Huerta told The New York Times that Chavez had forced her into sex twice, resulting in two pregnancies, and that she kept silent to avoid hurting the farmworkers movement. The 19th reported that Huerta described one encounter as rape. The Times investigation that included her account detailed Chavez's grooming and sexual abuse of girls as young as 12.

Huerta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, became the first Latina named to the National Women's Hall of Fame, and in 1998 received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award. California, Washington and Nevada each celebrate Dolores Huerta Day, and her Dolores Huerta Foundation, which she co-founded with her daughter Camila Chavez in 2003, continues to promote grassroots organizing for social justice.