Following the news that Dolores Huerta – the civil rights icon who popularized the rallying cry “Sí, se puede! – had died at the age of 96 on Wednesday, activists, lawmakers and civil rights leaders paid tribute to Hureta’s long and lasting legacy. In California – where Huerta helped found the United Farm Workers (UFW) union – her death was deeply felt. It was in California’s central valley that she laid the foundations for the United Farm Workers, and helped organize the 1965 Delano grape strike – a national boycott of table grapes that resulted in better wages and working conditions for grape pickers.
Several schools in California bear her name, and murals across the state depict her likeness. And in 2018, California declared 10 April – her birthday – Dolores Huerta Day. Dolores fought for farm workers to the very end of her life,” said UFW president Teresa Romero.
She helped negotiate national immigration policy, and remained, until her death, intimately involved in promoting civil and labor rights in Washington DC and across the US. Tributes also came from some of California’s biggest political names, including Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, Gavin Newsom, the governor, and former vice-president Kamala Harris. We will honor her legacy by continuing the fight for the dignity of every person.” “Dolores Huerta represented the best of us,” said Newsom.
You did everything,” said Xavier Becerra, the former California attorney general and former US health secretary who is running for governor. Dolores never let us forget where she came from. Si, se pudo [Yes, we did].” Lawmakers across the US, including Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the New York congressperson, also hailed her trailblazing legacy.
She continued to fight for the idea that when ordinary people come together, they can change the course of history,” said Ocasio Cortez. Eloise Gómez Reyes, the state senator who brought legislation in 2018 to mark 10 April as Dolores Huerta Day in California, said that she was mourning “the loss of someone who profoundly shaped my own life”. That ordinary people, working together, could challenge powerful institutions, overcome injustice, and build something better.
She didn’t simply open doors for women like me. She taught us that we had the power to open them for others,” Reyes said. Hilda Solis, a former Democratic congresswoman who became the first Latina to serve in a cabinet position as Barack Obama’s labor secretary, thanked Huerta for her mentorship.
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