Dolores Huerta, the labor organizer and civil rights leader who helped build the modern farmworker movement, died Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 96. Her family announced her death. Mission Local reports that she died at her home in Bakersfield.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has passed away today," the family wrote, according to The San Francisco Standard. They said plans to recognize her life and legacy will be announced later.

A life of organizing

Huerta was born in New Mexico in 1930 and grew up in Stockton. She worked as an elementary school teacher before turning to organizing. In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, which became the United Farm Workers. The Standard notes they helped organize the 1965 Delano grape strike and the 1966 march from Delano to Sacramento. Her rallying cry, "Sí, se puede" ("Yes, we can"), spread far beyond the fields.

President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. She kept working into her 90s through the Dolores Huerta Foundation in Bakersfield.

Bay Area ties

Huerta told Mission Local in 2024 that she had a fondness for San Francisco going back to childhood trips. That feeling grew when the Bay Area strongly backed the grape boycotts that began in 1965.

This year Huerta told The New York Times that Chavez had sexually assaulted her decades ago. She was one of several women who came forward. Since then, Bay Area cities have been removing Chavez's name. Mission Local reports that San Francisco plans to rename Cesar Chavez Street "Las Campesinas," for women farmworkers. On Tuesday night, the Berkeley City Council approved renaming its waterfront park Sí Se Puede Park, pending the United Farm Workers' approval to use the trademarked slogan, Berkeleyside reports.

Tributes

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi called Huerta "a dear friend" whose rallying cry "inspired generations of Americans to believe in the power of collective action." Gov. Gavin Newsom said she "represented the best of us."

Mission Local noted that Día de los Muertos is Monday, and that Huerta's photo is all but certain to appear on ofrendas in the Mission District.