Dolores Huerta, the labor organizer and civil rights icon who co-founded the United Farm Workers alongside Cesar Chavez and coined the rallying cry "¡Sí, se puede!", died Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, California. She was 96.

A family spokesperson told the Associated Press that Huerta died of cancer, surrounded by relatives. Her family announced the news through her foundation and on her Instagram account. "We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has passed away today at the age of 96," the family wrote.

Seven Decades on the Front Lines

Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 with Chavez, the organization that would become the United Farm Workers, building a movement that forced growers to the bargaining table through boycotts, strikes and relentless organizing of migrant laborers across California's fields. She is widely credited with coining "¡Sí, se puede!" — "Yes, we can" — a phrase that outlived the farmworker movement to become a rallying cry for causes far beyond it, most famously borrowed by Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

In 2012, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. She went on to found the Dolores Huerta Foundation in 2003, which continues to train community organizers and register voters across the Central Valley.

SÍ, SE PUEDE

Huerta's final months were marked by one more act of public reckoning. In March 2026, she said publicly that Chavez had sexually abused her in the 1960s, revealing that she had kept secret for six decades that she bore two of his children. The disclosure, covered extensively by multiple outlets at the time, complicated the legacy of the movement's most mythologized partnership even as it underscored Huerta's lifelong refusal to stay silent.

Tributes Pour In

Labor unions, Democratic officials and farmworker advocacy groups began issuing statements within hours of the announcement, remembering Huerta as the movement's fiercest and most enduring voice — a woman who was still showing up to rallies, trainings and campaign events into her 90s. Her foundation said funeral arrangements would be announced in the coming days.

Huerta is survived by eleven children, dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a movement she spent more than 70 years building.