Dolores Huerta

Biography

Dolores Huerta (born Dolores Clara Fernández; April 10, 1930 – October 28, 2026) was an American labor leader and feminist activist. After working for several years with the Community Service Organization (CSO), she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activists Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla, which eventually merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta joined Filipino leader Larry Itliong in the Delano grape strike in 1965, managing boycott campaigns on the east coast and negotiating with the grape companies to end the strike. Some credited her with the UFW slogan "sí se puede" (transl. 'yes we can').