Dolores Huerta, UFW Co-Founder, Dies at 96
The labor leader who helped organize the 1965 grape boycott and coin the slogan 'Yes we can' passed away in Bakersfield, California.
By Luka Evans ·
Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), died Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, California. She was 96. Her death marks the end of an era for the labor movement she helped build in the mid-20th century.
Family members announced the news via her Instagram account, stating that plans to recognize her legacy would follow. The New York Times reported that a spokesperson identified cancer as the cause of death, although the family's social media post did not specify the medical details.
Huerta's career began in the mid-1950s when she met community organizer Fred Ross Sr. She co-founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO) and later the Agricultural Workers Association. In 1962, she and Cesar Chavez left CSO to establish the National Farm Workers Association, which evolved into the UFW.
The union's most famous campaign was the Delano grape strike and boycott, which lasted from 1965 to 1970. Huerta helped organize the nationwide boycott that pressured grocery chains to stop selling grapes until growers agreed to better labor standards. This effort led to the passage of California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975, which granted farmworkers the right to unionize.
In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Huerta the Presidential Medal of Freedom. During the ceremony, he noted that she helped lead a worldwide grape boycott without any prior negotiating experience. He also acknowledged that he borrowed her slogan, 'Sí se puede,' for his 2008 presidential campaign, calling her gracious about the appropriation.
Huerta's public standing shifted in March 2026 when she broke her long silence regarding her personal relationship with Chavez. She publicly accused him of sexually abusing her in the 1960s, alleging that he pressured her into sex on one occasion and raped her on another. She stated that she had remained silent for decades to protect the farmworker movement from internal conflict.
Her disclosure accompanied a New York Times investigation into allegations that Chavez abused other women and girls. Huerta said the encounters resulted in pregnancies, and she arranged for the children to be raised by other families. She described herself as a 'spiritual daughter' of Ross, who first taught her and Chavez the techniques of community organizing.
The family said Huerta raised 14 children, 24 grandchildren, and 23 great-grandchildren. A spokesperson noted that she was a deeply private person regarding her family life. Huerta often spoke about the logistical challenges of balancing motherhood with activism, noting that women in the movement organized childcare in Delano while men focused on negotiation.
The next step in honoring her life will be determined by her family. They indicated they would follow up with plans to celebrate her legacy. The UFW continues to operate as a union advocating for agricultural workers' rights.
