Dolores Huerta, one of the founders of the organization that became the United Farm Workers, has died at age 96, her family announced Wednesday.
Her family did not announce a cause of death.
“As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for us, and we ask for privacy as we grieve this incredible loss to our family. We know that many of you around the world share in our mourning, and we will be following up on plans to recognize and celebrate her incredible life and legacy,” her family wrote on Wednesday.
Huerta helped coin the phrase, “S, se puede,” which translates to “Yes, we can,” and was adopted by the United Farm Workers as its slogan. Her slogan was later adopted as a campaign slogan by President Barack Obama, who presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
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“One of America’s great labor and civil rights icons, Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta has devoted her life to advocating for marginalized communities,” Obama said in 2012. “Alongside Cesar Chavez, she co-founded the United Farm Workers of America and fought to secure basic rights for migrant workers and their families, helping save thousands from neglect and abuse. Dolores Huerta has never lost faith in the power of community organizing, and through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, she continues to train and mentor new activists to walk the streets into history.” Her negotiating work on behalf of unionized agricultural workers helped secure benefits and protections for them.
Huerta played a major role in the 1965 Delano grape strike and national grape boycott, which demanded improved working conditions for farmworkers working for grape growers.
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Huerta returned to the public eye earlier this year after claiming that Chavez had sexually abused her in the 1960s.
“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my lifes work,” she said. “The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and I wasnt going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farmworkers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights.”