Dolores Huerta, a labor organizer and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, died Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at her home in Bakersfield, California. She was 96 years old. Her family announced her death in a statement released through her foundation.
Born in New Mexico in 1930, Huerta moved to California as a child and eventually became an elementary school teacher. She left the profession in 1955 to pursue activism, stating that she believed she could be more effective by organizing farmworkers than by teaching their children, many of whom arrived at school hungry and without adequate clothing.
In 1962, Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with César Chavez, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW). She served as a lead negotiator for the union, securing collective bargaining agreements and the first health benefit plans for farmworkers. Huerta is also credited with coining the slogan \"S\u00ed, se puede!\" (Yes, it can be done), which became a rallying cry for labor and civil rights movements.
Huerta's activism extended to several presidential campaigns, starting with Sen. Robert Kennedy in 1968. She was present on stage when Kennedy was assassinated following the California primary. Over her career, Huerta was jailed 22 times for union demonstrations and suffered serious injuries, including a pulverized spleen and broken ribs, during a 1988 protest in San Francisco. In 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Barack Obama.
The scale of Huerta\u2019s influence is reflected in her advocacy for the UFW, which represented thousands of fruit and vegetable pickers across the nation's agricultural fields. Her work led to the first-ever health and benefit plans for these workers, providing a safety net for families who previously had no job security or insurance. Beyond labor, her later focus on campaigning for Latinas to run for office and supporting reproductive rights set a precedent for female leadership within the Latino community, with her name now attached to multiple schools and streets in California, Texas, and Colorado.
For the average farmworker family, Huerta's efforts translated into tangible changes such as disability insurance and financial aid for the unemployed. While her death marks the end of an era for the UFW's founding leadership, her foundation remains active in local and national politics. Recent disclosures by Huerta in 2026 regarding sexual abuse by César Chavez in the 1960s have prompted new discussions within the labor movement about the history of its leadership. No specific funeral dates or public memorials were immediately announced by the family following the Wednesday report.