Facts
- Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez and spent decades as a labor and civil rights leader, died Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at her home in Bakersfield, California, PBS NewsHour reported. She was 96. PBS said the cause was cancer.
- Born Dolores Clara Fernandez in New Mexico in 1930, she left a job as a schoolteacher in California’s San Joaquin Valley to organize farmworkers, moved by her students’ poverty, PBS reported.
- She served as vice president of the union for nearly four decades and was second in command to Chavez until his death in 1993.
- The union joined a five-year strike by Filipino workers against grape growers and organized major strikes and boycotts in the 1960s and 1970s. It also negotiated contracts that won benefits for farmworkers.
- Huerta was jailed 22 times over union demonstrations and was critically injured after being beaten by police, according to PBS. She volunteered for Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign and was on stage with him when he was assassinated.
- President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. She advised Maria Teresa Kumar when Kumar founded Voto Latino.
- In 2026, Huerta publicly said Chavez raped her during the union’s early years. PBS reported that a New York Times investigation found Chavez had sexually abused multiple women. Huerta said the assaults led to two pregnancies and that she gave up two children for adoption. She had 14 children in all, PBS reported.
Quotes
Dolores Huerta, on what activism means: “It means that people can have the power to change things in their lives.”
Geraldo Cadava, Northwestern University historian: “She was a real fighter and leader and influencer within the movement.”
Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino: “Dolores Huerta was a giant.”
Barack Obama, on Huerta: “Dolores does not play.”
Source Read PBS NewsHour’s remembrance here.
Image Dolores Huerta by Gage Skidmore by Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
