Dolores Huerta (1930 – 2026)

Dolores Huerta, the legendary labor rights activist, feminist and organizer, has died at 96. 

Huerta dedicated herself to activism and civil rights, sacrificing time with her family and risking her own safety to expand what was possible. She coined the phrase “Sí, se puede,” which can be heard at almost every protest. As the co-founder of the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, Huerta spent the majority of her life fighting for better working conditions for the people who grow and harvest America’s food. She was also an outspoken feminist, environmental activist and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. The last of her 25 total arrests for civil disobedience activities came in 2019, at the age 89, during a union protest for home healthcare workers. 

In 2017, Truthdig sat down with Huerta and film director Peter Bratt to discuss “Dolores,” the documentary he made about her life and work. Huerta described her experience drafting legislation in her early 20s, her opinions on President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in his first term, and what started her down the path of social justice work — a journey that started when she was just a young girl. “As a Girl Scout,” she said, “I saw the way we were treated differently because we were kids of color.”

“We were being racially profiled. We didn’t call it that back then, but the police would always stop us going home from a basketball game or a football game, and they would search us. They didn’t do that to the white kids we knew. I saw a lot of my friends growing up who were put into juvenile detention centers. You grow up with all of this racial injustice, and it just makes you really angry. I belonged to all of these social organizations, like my church organization, but they didn’t really make a difference.” 

In another 2017 interview with Truthdig, Huerta talked about the critical importance of education and civic engagement, especially for women, and the need to raise the minimum wage. If set according to the real cost of living, she said, “our minimum wage would be $30 an hour. Because people cannot have a good life at $15 an hour. At $10.50 or $11 … people can’t make it on that wage.”

Earlier this year, Huerta disclosed that Chavez sexually and emotionally abused her for years, and that she had two children as a result. Huerta said that she kept the abuse secret for so many years because she did not want to hurt the organization and movement to which she dedicated her life. 

“It’s devastating because Cesar spoke about and practiced the nonviolent movement,” she told ABC News. “Well, what could be more violent than that, you know? To think that somebody that we looked at as our hero and our leader, you know, it’s pretty horrible. I would hope that his legacy would live on in the things that were accomplished, the improvements that were made, and it’s sad to think that he had this dark side to him.”

Watch a feature-length PBS documentary about Huertes’ life and organizing career here, and a short-form tribute by Seeds of Change here.