Pioneering civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, a towering figure in the farmworker and labor movement in California, has died at age 96, according to her family.
Details about a cause of death were not immediately available.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has passed away today at the age of 96,” the family of Huerta said in a Facebook post. “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.”
Huerta, born in New Mexico to a farm worker and miner, moved with her mother to Stockton, California, where Alicia Huerta worked jobs as a waitress and cannery worker until she saved enough to buy a small hotel and restaurant.
Huerta earned an associate teaching degree from the University of the Pacific’s Delta College and briefly taught school in the 1950s, but felt compelled to help organize farmers and farm workers after witnessing hungry farm children coming to school.
She co-founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO) in 1955 and later the Agricultural Workers Association.
Huerta met labor leader César Chávez through a CSO associate and the two activists founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. The UFW formed from the movement three years later and Huerta served as vice president until 1999.
In March, Huerta issued a statement accusing Chávez of sexually abused her during their time in the California labor movement of the 1960s.
President Obama awarded Huerta the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 for her work advocating for the underserved. The medal is the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Huerta has received numerous awards for her work, including The Eleanor Roosevelt Humans Rights Award from President Bill Clinton in 1998. The Dolores Huerta Foundation, started in 2002, works on community-based organizing as well as state and national issues.
Several landmarks in Southern California, including Dolores Huerta Square in LA’s Boyle Heights area, are named in her honor.
In May, Huerta attended the dedication ceremony for her new mural in downtown Los Angeles. The mural, titled “Walking into History,” was created by Robert Vargas, an artist behind several of LA’s famous murals.
