Dolores Huerta, farmworker organizer who co-founded the United Farm Workers, dies at 96

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (Oct. 29) — Dolores Huerta, the labor and civil rights organizer who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with César Chávez, died Wednesday at her home in Bakersfield, California, her family said. She was 96.

Huerta died of cancer, the BBC reported. In a statement released through spokesman Erik Olvera, her family said she died surrounded by close family and asked for privacy, the Associated Press reported via NPR. The Dolores Huerta Foundation, the organizing group she founded, posted a memorial on its website.

Born in New Mexico and raised in Stockton, California, Huerta worked as a teacher before turning to organizing. She raised 11 children while building the farmworker movement, according to the AP. With Chávez, she co-founded the union that became the United Farm Workers in the 1960s, and she is credited with coining the movement's rallying cry, "Sí, se puede," or "Yes, we can."

The union has credited Huerta with helping end the federal Bracero guest-worker program and with helping negotiate the 1986 immigration reform law. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the BBC reported, and former President Bill Clinton presented her with the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998.

Tributes came quickly. Clinton called her a "stalwart champion of working Americans," and California Gov. Gavin Newsom said she "represented the best of us," according to the AP. California lowered flags to half-staff in her honor, PBS NewsHour reported. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the United Farm Workers and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus also issued statements honoring her.

Earlier this year, Huerta said in a New York Times investigation that Chávez had manipulated and pressured her into sex, the BBC reported.