Dolores Huerta

Dolores Clara Huerta (née Fernández; April 10, 1930 – October 28, 2026) was an American labor leader and feminist activist. After working for several years with the Community Service Organization (CSO), she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activists Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla, which eventually merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta joined Filipino leader Larry Itliong in the Delano grape strike in 1965, managing boycott campaigns on the east coast and negotiating with the grape companies to end the strike. Some credit her with the UFW slogan "sí se puede" (transl. 'yes we can'). Although she initially opposed certain feminist concepts, such as the right to abortion and contraception, Huerta eventually became a strong proponent of women's rights. She worked with the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) to help Latina women become more active and visible in politics, campaigned for women's reproductive rights, and served as an honorary co-chair of the 2017 Women's March in Washington, D.C. In 2002, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), a civic advocacy organization based in Bakersfield, California. She was active in Democratic politics and supported the campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy, George McGovern, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris. She was also a supporter of LGBTQ rights and immigration reform. Huerta received numerous awards for her work as an organizer, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, the Hispanic Heritage Award, and the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. In 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill proclaiming April 10 as "Dolores Huerta Day" in California. A similar bill was signed in Oregon in 2019. She is portrayed by Rosario Dawson in the 2014 film Cesar Chavez and is the subject of the 2017 documentary Dolores.

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