Poster for the film Dolores by Peter Bratt.
Dolores Huerta (April 10, 1930 – October 28, 2026) is one of the most famous and recognizable labor organizer and civil rights leaders of the century. She was born in Dawson, New Mexico; later she and her family moved to Stockton, California where her awareness of worker justice issues grew as she worked at the United Cannery, Agricultural , Packing and Allied Workers of America.By 1955 she had met community activist Fred Ross and became involved with the Community Services Organization (CSO) and met fellow labor activist, Cesar Chavez. When the CSO asked the duo to abandon their efforts to work with farm workers, they decided to break away from the CSO and, along with Gilbert Padilla, went on their own to create a union for farm workers. In 1962. they co-founded the National farm Labor Association (NFWA). When the Agricultural Workers Organization Committee (AWOC), led by Larry Itliong, went on strike in 1965 against California grape growers, the two unions decided to merge and a new union was born: the United Farm Workers.
Dolores Huerta is perhaps best known for her early work with the UFW, becoming chief negotiator for union contracts. She originated the phrase “Si Se Puede” as a unifying cry of the farm labor struggle. During the 1970s, she developed a relationship with Richard Chavez, brother of Cesar Chavez. The two had four children: Juanita, María Elena, Ricky, and Camila.It was during her work leading the national grape boycott in the 1960s and early 1970s that she began to integrate feminist issues into her work including the right to reproductive choice and soon became a leader on feminist politics, championing the rights of women with activists like Gloria Steinem and the Feminist Majority Foundation. In 2017 She was named honorary co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington. D.C. As she continued to gain a national presence she became involved in politics supporting numerous progressive candidates and causes. She had continued to support national progressive candidates including, a different times, Robert F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.
In September 1988, she attended a protest against the candidacy of George H.W. Bush. Police attacked the protest and she was beaten savagely by police, suffering two fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen, which doctors had to surgically remove. She received an $825,000 settlement from the San Francisco Police Commission as a result of the beating she suffered. After that, she took a leave of absence from the UFW. She returned to union work after Chavez’s death in 1993 but when the union failed to name her Chavez’s successor, she left the organization and went to work with the foundation she created to champion the rights of women and community activism.
Dolores at her foundation headquarters.
In 2002, Huerta had created the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF), an organization based in Bakersfield, California. Huerta saw her foundation as continuing the non-violent tactics of the civil rights movement to bring about social change. She has continued community involvement projects through her foundation since its founding.
In recent years Dolores has received numerous recognition. She is one of the subjects of Sylvia Morales documentary A Crushing Love (2009), and is portrayed by actress Rosario Dawson in the feature film Cesar Chavez, directed by Diego Luna. She is also the subject of Peter Bratt’s long form documentary Dolores (2017).
She was awarded “Outstanding Labor Leader” in 1984 by the California State Senate, the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1988, the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award in 1993 and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame also in 1993. In 2000, she was awarded the Hispanic Heritage Award and the $100,000 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship in 2002. In 2009, she received the UCLA medal, the highest honor bestowed by the university and she was awarded honorary degrees from Mills College, Princeton University, the University of the Pacific, and the University of Southern California. In 2015 she received the Aztec Award from the Mexican government, the highest award of Mexico bestowed on a foreigner. In 2023 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. Numerous elementary schools have been named after her.
In March 2026, following disclosures that Cesar Chavez had assaulted young women while he led the Farm Worker’s Union, Huerta came forward and described rape assaults in 1960 and 1966 that she had , herself, experienced. The rapes resulted in two children. She gave them to a family to raise as their own. She explained why she kept the incidents secret for so many years because she knew it would destroy the farm worker’s movement but decided to step forward to support the young women who had also been raped by Chavez.