Dolores Huerta Dies at 96: The Farmworker Champion Behind 'Sí, Se Puede'

Dolores Huerta, the labour leader who helped transform the lives of America's farmworkers, has died at the age of 96, her family announced on Wednesday, October 28. Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez in 1962, the organisation that later became the United Farm Workers, and served it as chief negotiator, strike organiser and lobbyist through its defining years in California's Central Valley in the 1960s and 1970s.

The contracts her union negotiated changed what farm work meant in practice. Workers won job security, healthcare and retirement plans, a credit union, and basic protections that sound simple today but were once denied in the fields: guaranteed rest periods, toilets, clean drinking water and safeguards against pesticides. Huerta also gave the movement its enduring slogan, 'Sí, se puede' — 'Yes, we can' — a phrase later made famous worldwide by Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

Huerta remained active well into her nineties, speaking on campuses, registering voters and campaigning on immigration and workers' rights. In 2012 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honour. Her family said she died at home in Bakersfield, California, surrounded by loved ones, and asked for privacy as they grieve, promising plans to celebrate a life spent fighting for people whose voices were long overlooked.

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