Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers and coined 'Sí, se puede,' has died at 96 at her Bakersfield home

What happened

Dolores Huerta, the labor organizer who co-founded the farmworker group that became the United Farm Workers, died Wednesday at age 96, her family said in a statement released through her foundation. NPR, PBS NewsHour and CBS News all reported her death.

Family spokesperson Erik Olvera told The Associated Press that Huerta died of cancer at her home in Bakersfield, California, with family around her, CBS News reported. The family asked for privacy, saying in its statement that it knows "many of you around the world share in our mourning."

Who she was

From the classroom to organizing

Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernandez in 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico, according to the reports. Her father was a miner and union activist who later won a seat in the state Legislature, and after her parents divorced when she was 3, her mother moved the family to California. She later taught elementary school in the San Joaquin Valley, where she grew frustrated by her students' poor living conditions. "I thought I could do more by organizing farmworkers than by trying to teach their hungry children," she said in a 2017 PBS Independent Lens documentary, as quoted by NPR.

Building a farmworker union

Through a civil rights group in Stockton, Huerta met César Chavez, and in 1962 the two started the National Farm Workers Association, which a few years later became United Farm Workers of America. She joined Filipino grape pickers in the five-year Delano Grape Strike and, with Chavez, negotiated contracts with large growers that won the first health and benefit plans for farmworkers, the outlets reported.

Her nationwide boycotts of grapes and lettuce in the early 1970s helped build the pressure for California to pass the first state law recognizing farmworkers' right to collective bargaining, according to PBS NewsHour. She also secured disability insurance for California farmworkers and financial aid for the unemployed, and spoke out against toxic pesticides.

She was jailed 22 times for union demonstrating. In 1988, while protesting George H.W. Bush's opposition to the UFW grape boycott in San Francisco, she was struck by a police officer's baton and suffered three broken ribs and a pulverized spleen, and she later reached a settlement with the city.

Where the slogan came from

Huerta told CBS News earlier this year that she coined "Sí, se puede," which translates to "Yes, it can be done," during a campaign in Arizona against a law under which farmworkers could be jailed for striking. She said local leaders told her it could not be done in Arizona, and the phrase was her spontaneous reply.

Honors and a painful disclosure

Then-President Barack Obama awarded Huerta the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 and joked that he had taken her slogan for his 2008 campaign, NPR reported. She was the first Latina inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, received nine honorary doctorates from U.S. universities, and has schools named for her in California, Texas and Colorado.

This year, Huerta revealed that Chavez sexually abused her in the 1960s, leading to the birth of two children, a secret she kept for 60 years. She said she stayed silent because she feared speaking out would undermine her life's work and the progress made for workers. The reports say she had 13 children in all.

How leaders responded

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whom the reports describe as a close friend, ordered flags flown at half-staff and said "Dolores represented the best of us," according to CBS News. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called her legacy "proof of what ordinary people can accomplish when they organize."

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Huerta a dear friend, and former President Bill Clinton described her as a "stalwart champion of working Americans," CBS News reported. Readers can find related coverage of her death and more national news on our site.

What to watch next

• California flags are to fly at half-staff under an order from Gov. Gavin Newsom, CBS News reported.
• Huerta's family has asked for privacy, and none of the three reports described funeral or memorial plans.
• NPR reported that Chicano artists are reckoning with the abuse allegations against César Chavez that Huerta made public this year.