BY JOE ARCE AND COREY CREABLE
Labor rights and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, who championed causes for farm workers, women, and immigrants, died on October 28 at the age of 96.
Born in New Mexico in 1930 and raised in California, Huerta once said she was inspired to adopt a life of activism after seeing farmworkers’ children arriving to school without shoes. She began working for civil rights organizations in the late 1950s.
“I could no longer ignore the injustice in the fields,” Huerta would later tell a PBS interviewer.
With Cesar Chavez, Huerta co-founded the organization that would become the United Farm Workers in 1962.
Huerta played a crucial role in organizing the 1965 Delano grape strike, whose boycotts would eventually lead to the first national farmworkers collective bargaining agreement. Arrested 22 times over the course of her career, Huerta’s rallying cry of “Si, se puede!” galvanized her supporters and sparked action in the name of change. Later the recipient of many prestigious awards, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation in 2003 to identify and cultivate the next generation of leaders.
Earlier this year, Huerta was in the news following a public statement in which she accused the late Cesar Chavez of sexual abuse. The accusations triggered calls for the removal of Chavez’s name and likeness from statues, public sites, schools, facilities, schools and streets around
the country.
On social media, tributes and condolences poured in from around the world for Huerta and her life’s work.
On Facebook, former President Barack Obama posted, “Michelle and I are thinking of Dolores’s family, the people whose lives she changed, and everyone who drew inspiration from
her example.”
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly posted that she was “deeply saddened” to hear of Huerta’s death. “Her courage sparked a movement that transformed our country,” Kelly wrote.
Also, Kansas State Rep. Susan Ruiz wrote on her social media page, “I was grateful to meet Dolores Huerta and honor her in the Kansas House of Representatives. I was also honored to have her sign my United Farm Worker t-shirt. Let’s honor her by voting. Si, se puede.”
UFW’s president, Teresa Romero, said of Huerta: “Our greatest monument to her memory is for the union she helped found continue to grow. Dolores fought for farm workers to the very end
of her life.”
Here in Kansas City people are also reflecting on the life and legacy of Dolores Huerta.
Delia Marin said on her on her social media page,
“You stood where the work was hardest, where hands were worn, and voices went unheard. You listened. You organized. You stayed.
You gave your days to the long work of dignity
at bargaining tables, in fields, on streets where people gathered
and learned what they could do together.
I had the honor of meeting Dolores many years ago. I remember telling her how much she reminded me of my Abuelita Jovita. Now, I look at our photograph with gratitude for that moment,
and for the lifetime of courage you gave beyond it. As Latinas, we carry your example into rooms you helped open, into choices that ask us to be brave, into the lives of young women learning to trust their own voices.
May we honor you with more than words? May we stand beside someone? May we speak when it is difficult? May we leave a clearer path for those still finding their way”
Descansa en paz, Dolores, Con gratitud, seguimos. ¡Sí, se puede!
