Dolores Huerta, a legend of the Chicano labor movement with deep connections to Monterey County, has died. For over six decades, Huerta fought for the rights of all people on the margins of society under the banner, “Sí se puede!” (or "Yes we can”). She was 96.
Huerta died in Bakersfield surrounded by close family. The cause of death was cancer, a family spokesperson announced on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
Born in New Mexico in 1930, Huerta started her career as a teacher in the Stockton area. She was motivated to action after watching children coming to school hungry because their parents were working long hours in the fields for wages that kept them in poverty, according to an obituary posted by the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
It was through her actions in helping the Central Valley farmworker families that she learned how to organize, becoming one of the few women lobbyists of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She successfully fought for several statewide changes, including allowing people to take driver’s license exams in Spanish, an extension of Aid to Families with Dependent Children and disability insurance protections for agricultural workers.
Huerta joined forces with Cesar Chavez in 1962, and two would go on to co-found what would become the United Farm Workers, successfully winning gains for farmworkers over many years. Her obituary credits Huerta as “the principal architect of the union’s power.”
That partnership took on new meaning this past March, after two women came forward to say that Chavez had sexually assaulted them as teens, and Huerta shared publicly for the first time with the New York Times that Chavez had raped her twice in the 1960s, resulting in two pregnancies. She remained silent to protect the farmworker movement.
“Dolores did not emerge from that history by retreating from leadership. She pushed further,” the obituary said, after referencing her revelation from March.
“Dolores’ feminism grew from a lifetime of exercising authority in places where women were expected to defer. She negotiated while men expected her to remain quiet, led while others expected her to follow, and raised a family while helping build a national movement,” it reads.
Part of Huerta’s legacy is the ascendancy of California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, who credits Huerta for where he is today.
“There would be no Speaker Rivas without Dolores Huerta. She paved the way. She made it possible,” he said in a statement released after her death.
Rivas said it was Huerta who negotiated his grandfather’s first union contract at Almaden Vineyards. “She helped give him and his fellow farmworkers a voice, dignity and a fair shot at a better life,” he said.
Huerta and his family became friends and “helped change the course of our lives.” Rivas grew up in farmworker housing in Paicines, hearing his grandfather’s stories about the fight for rights he and Huerta engaged in. Huerta was by Rivas’ side when he ran for Assembly in 2018, and when he accepted the speakership in 2023.
“Every time I walk into work, I carry her lessons with me. Dolores helped make it possible for someone like me, raised from farmworker housing, to lead at our state Capitol,” he said.
“For generations of Latinos, Dolores was proof that our voices matter, our work matters and we belong in the rooms where decisions are made,” Rivas said. “She showed us that the people closest to injustice are often the people with the greatest power to change it.”
Huerta’s organizing in Monterey County dates back to at least 1970, during a summer of one of the largest farm-labor disputes in America since the 1930s, according to the 1997 book, The Fight in the Fields; Cesar Chavez and the Farmworker Union. Huerta was a key figure during that summer when they were negotiating with one of the largest ag companies while simultaneously leading marches through downtown Salinas and rallies on the Hartnell College football field.
Huerta’s bargaining prowess is credited with winning a generous two-year contract with a company while also pushing out the Teamsters, which growers had signed contracts with earlier in an effort to stop the rise of Chavez's United Farmworkers Organizing Committee.
Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo’s grandparents were among the first to join Chavez and Huerta in 1970.
“Dolores Huerta led a remarkable life dedicated to fighting for the dignity and rights of farmworkers and uplifting our communities, including those in the Salinas and Pajaro valleys,” Alejo says. “Her courage and tireless advocacy inspired generations. She accomplished extraordinary things for our workers, families and our nation. Her legacy will live on in the countless lives she touched.”
Huerta continued to campaign for the rights of farmworkers, and workers in general, as well as the rights of immigrants, women and progressive causes around the country. Throughout, she utilized the farmworkers’ chant, “Sí se puede.” (She told an audience at CSU Monterey Bay during a celebration for International Women’s Day in 2012, “I’m the one that came up with that, not Cesar.”)
In 2016, Huerta was invited to join the cause for the passage of Measure Z to ban fracking in Monterey County. Huerta saw fracking as another environmental justice cause worth fighting for, alongside her longstanding fight against pesticides.
She told the Weekly in October of that year that she was disappointed that some Latino public officials were joining the oil companies in campaigning against the measure. Opponents argued the ban would hurt relatively poor communities by blocking economic activity. To Huerta, working for clean water was the social justice argument worth fighting for.
With just weeks ahead of the November 2016 election between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, Huerta, who supported Clinton, said Trump was “making very visible the face of bigotry, racism and sexism to a degree that nobody can ignore it’s so blatant, so overt, that it's going to put pressure on all of our government and private agencies and corporations to start solving the issues because they’re so damaging.”
When asked how, at 86 at that time, she remained so active and healthy, Huerta said she was a vegetarian and didn’t drink sodas. During a farmworkers’ strike in Delano in 1965 she gave up sodas and alcohol until they got their first contract. She had a dry martini when they got the contract, but never went back to sodas.
“We’re naming this school after someone who has fought hard for the people of this valley,” said then-Salinas mayor Joe Gunter during the ceremony. “If any of the students who attend pick at least some of her traits, the world will be a better place.”
Huerta called it a great honor, but took the opportunity to address a number of social issues, including racism.
“Our children should never be deprived of their history,” she said. “And our Anglo children, well, we don’t want any more neo-Nazis.”
She encouraged fighting for school arts programs, higher teacher pay and an end to the “school-to-prison” pipeline. She spoke out against Trump’s plan to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, or DACA.
“Our history is one of immigrants,” Huerta said. “I’m happy that this school will cater to the sons and daughters of immigrants in this community.”
While Chavez's memory is now being debated, including over whether to rename the many locations that have been named after him, Huerta is being lauded for her contributions to the region, state and country.
“History will remember Dolores as one of the most important civil rights leaders this nation has ever known,” Rivas said. “Where others saw people they could ignore, Dolores saw power—and she delivered for the people time and again.”
As for the famous phrase, "Sí, se puede," Rivas said Huerta didn’t just say it, she lived it.
“She spent her life showing us how. The best way to honor Dolores is to keep doing what she taught us: Stand with working people, speak up for those too often unheard, always cast your vote and never give up on justice and equity,” Rivas said.
Huerta is survived by 14 children, 24 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren. A statement from the family said they are grieving her loss and will announce plans to recognize and celebrate Huerta’s life and legacy at a later date.