Dolores Huerta, Liberal Labor Darling, Sex Abuse Coverup Mastermind Dead At 96

Dolores Huerta, the celebrated labor activist who helped build the United Farm Workers into a powerful force in American politics, died Wednesday at 96, leaving behind a legacy lauded by the left, newly shadowed by her admission that she kept her account of sexual abuse by fellow labor leader César Chávez secret for six decades because she feared damaging the farmworker movement. 

Huerta’s death was announced by her family. In March, after a New York Times investigation detailed allegations that Chávez sexually abused women and underage girls, Huerta publicly said that Chávez had sexually abused her twice in the 1960s, resulting in two pregnancies. Huerta had four children with Richard Chávez, César’s brother, with whom she was in a long-term relationship.

“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work,” she said in March.

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“I wasn’t going to let César or anyone else get in the way,” Huerta said in a statement explaining why she had concealed her experiences. She described one encounter as involving manipulation and pressure and another as forced against her will. 

Huerta claimed she did not know Chávez abused other women. She said the Times investigation indicated that other victims existed, prompting her to break her silence. The newspaper reported allegations from multiple women, including two who said Chávez abused them when they were minors. Chávez died in 1993.

Democratic officials paid tribute to Huerta on Wednesday, praising her labor organizing and civil rights work while glossing over her relationship with Chávez.

California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and “first partner” Jennifer Siebel Newsom called Huerta a figure who represented “the best of us.” Newsom ordered flags flown at half-staff in her honor. He also proclaimed April 10, her birthday, as Dolores Huerta Day earlier this year.

“Her legacy lies not just in the accomplishments she achieved, but in the people who follow in her footsteps, who take up the mantle, and keep creating a better world,” Newsom wrote Wednesday.

Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego called Huerta “a true champion for civil rights” and said she had helped workers secure better pay and working conditions. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker described her as a “fearless labor leader” and “a lifelong champion of working people.”

Huerta spent decades campaigning for Democrats and receiving honors from the party’s leaders. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the nation’s highest civilian honor. She also received human rights awards from President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation and was inducted into the  California Hall of Fame.

She endorsed Kamala Harris in her 2010 California attorney general campaign, backed Harris’s 2020 presidential bid, and endorsed her again in 2024. Huerta served as California co-chair of Harris’s 2020 campaign and campaigned for her in 2024, when the vice president sought to mobilize Latino voters.

Born in Dawson, New Mexico, in 1930, Huerta became one of the farmworker movement’s most recognizable figures. She helped establish the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, an organization that became part of the United Farm Workers, which she built alongside Chávez and other labor organizers.

The union’s grape boycott and organizing campaigns helped secure labor contracts and improve conditions for agricultural workers. Huerta also popularized the slogan “Sí, se puede,” or “Yes, we can,” which later became a familiar rallying cry for Democratic politicians and activists.

Yet the movement’s most celebrated figures are now being reassessed following the allegations against Chávez. the United Farm Workers canceled events honoring its former leader after the Times investigation. California lawmakers renamed César Chávez Day as Farmworkers Day and cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, moved to strip his name from public landmarks.

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