LULAC Remembers Dolores Huerta
Nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization pauses to honor a historic American labor leader whose mission began in the fields that feed the nation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The League of United Latin American Citizens mourns the death of Dolores Huerta, the labor organizer and civil rights leader who gave farmworkers a voice and the nation a rallying cry. Her family announced Wednesday that she died at 96.
“Dolores Huerta proved that the people who feed America deserve the full protection of its laws,” said Roman Palomares, LULAC national president and chairman of the board. “She did not wait for permission to lead. She organized, she negotiated, and she won.”
Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernández on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico, and grew up in Stockton, California. She began her career as a teacher. She left the classroom after seeing students arrive hungry and without shoes and set out to change the conditions their families endured.
“Her life is a lesson for every generation,” said Juan Proaño, LULAC chief executive officer. “Our duty now is to carry her work forward with the same courage and discipline she gave it for more than seven decades.”
In 1962, she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, forerunner of the United Farm Workers. She helped lead the Delano grape strike and directed the national grape boycott that brought growers to the bargaining table. She negotiated union contracts and lobbied for California’s 1975 Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the first U.S. law to protect farmworkers’ right to organize. She gave the movement its enduring call: “Sí se puede.”
In 2002, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation to train community organizers. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. She raised 11 children and never stopped organizing.
"LULAC calls on the president and Congress to act immediately to declare a national day of remembrance for Dolores Huerta," said Palomares. "LULAC also urges the president to order flags lowered nationwide to half-staff in her honor." He added.
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