Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the farmworker union that became the United Farm Workers and coined the rallying cry “Sí, se puede,” has died at 96, her family announced Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
Huerta died at home, according to the AP. Her family did not announce a cause of death. Born in 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2012.
In Arizona, where the “Sí, se puede” slogan was born during a 1972 farmworker campaign in Phoenix, Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered flags at state buildings lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset Thursday. “Dolores Huerta spent her life fighting for farmworkers, working families, and basic human dignity,” Hobbs said.
Candles lit the front of Phoenix City Hall on Wednesday night as labor leaders and community members gathered in her honor, ABC15 reported. Councilwoman Betty Guardado, who helped lead the vigil, said Huerta “brought her own chair to the table when women were not allowed to have a seat at the table.”
Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, told ABC15 she first learned about Huerta through labor history and saw her as someone who looked like her own family.
Huerta spent seven decades organizing for workers, women and immigrants.
Sources: Associated Press via AZ Luminaria, ABC15. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Missvain / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
