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American labor leader and activist Dolores Huerta, a partner of unionist César Chávez in the campaign for migrant workers, passed away at 96, her family reported this Wednesday.
Huerta was vice president of the United Farm Workers, the union she co-founded with Chávez, organizing strikes and work stoppages for four decades that achieved improvements in working conditions for the millions of men and women who work in the fields of the United States.
"We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, passed away today at the age of 96," the family said in a statement.
"We know that many of you around the world share our grief, and in the coming days, we will be announcing plans to recognize and celebrate her incredible life and legacy," they added.
Born in New Mexico and raised in California, Huerta took the reins of the American farmworker movement in the 1960s alongside Chávez.
At that time, she was raising seven children while going through a divorce.
While Huerta was the organizing force behind the union, Chávez was its charismatic leader and the public face who became an icon for generations of the left, even after his death in 1993.
But that fame and the apparently close relationship between the two hid a dark secret that came to light this year, when Huerta acknowledged that she was one of several women whom Chávez had raped.
In her case, the rapes resulted in two pregnancies.
"The first time... I didn't feel I could say no because he was someone I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement to which I had already dedicated years of my life," she told The New York Times, which published the scoop.
"The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped," she added.
Huerta remained a galvanizing figure for the American left well into her 90s, with campaigns against the immigration raids of President Donald Trump.
"People are stepping up because they want to do something. We have to be much more active, because what is happening now is huge," she told AFP during an interview in July 2025, in reference to those campaigns against illegal immigration.
Huerta rubbed shoulders with some of the most influential people in the United States for decades.
In 1968, she was standing next to Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the assassinated former President John F. Kennedy, just minutes before he was shot to death.
Democratic President Barack Obama, who adopted the motto "Yes, we can" from Dolores Huerta, awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
[Publicidad]