Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta died at her home Wednesday. She was 96. Her family announced in a social media statement.
Huerta’s work connected the struggles of migrant farmworkers with broader efforts to secure equal rights for women, immigrants and other marginalized communities. At USC, her legacy also had a personal and artistic connection through an honorary degree she received in 2023 for her contributions.
For USC public relations and advertising graduate student Jorge Ramos, her death brought shock and sadness, along with reflection on a life he believes deserves greater recognition.
Ramos said he first encountered Huerta’s story in a high school history class, where he remembered Cesar Chávez receiving much of the attention for the farmworker movement.
Through his own reading, Ramos came to understand Huerta’s larger role as a co-founder and organizer. He said he admired her commitment to the civil rights movement over her personal recognition.
“She was about the cause, and she moved with grace,” Ramos said.
The issues that shaped Huerta’s activism were ones she encountered early in life. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, she grew up in Stockton, California, where she witnessed the harsh conditions migrant farmworkers faced, helping inspire her advocacy.
In 1962, Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. The organization merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, ultimately forming the United Farm Workers in 1996, according to the National Park Service.
As a union organizer, Huerta negotiated contracts and advocated for safer working conditions, according to the AFL-CIO’s biography. Her foundation also credits her with helping secure disability insurance for California farmworkers in 1963.
In the late 1960s, Huerta helped lead a nationwide table grape boycott that resulted in a collective bargaining agreement in 1970, according to the AFL-CIO. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery notes that contracts won through the 1965-70 strike and boycott prohibited DDT, a widely used agriculture insecticide, securing pesticide protections before the federal ban took effect in 1972.
According to the Department of Labor, Huerta’s advocacy also extended to immigrants, minorities, women, at-risk youth and LGBTQ+ Americans. In 2012, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her lifetime of advocacy.
Patrick Cardenas Hersig, a junior majoring in legal studies, said he learned of Huerta’s death through Instagram while heading to work. The news prompted him to reflect on her influence on his own advocacy at USC.
“She serves as a role model for all the advocacy work that I do within both my work at La Casa, but also within the Latino Student Assembly,” Hersig said.
In 2023, USC’s honorary degree to Huerta coincided with another milestone in her family: Her younger cousin, Nicolás Lell Benavides, received his doctorate in musical arts from USC the same week.
Benavides also composed an opera based on Huetra’s life titled Dolores, bringing her story as an organizer and civil rights leader to audiences through music.
Chloe Sullivan, a freshman studying dramatic arts with an emphasis in directing, said she was devastated by the news and hoped it would encourage others to learn about Huerta.
“I think that her passing marks another opportunity for people to have more respect, do more research and understand her motive,” Sullivan said.
Huerta coined the rally cry “Sí se puede,” meaning “Yes, it can be done”, which became closely associated with the movement she helped build. When asked what he hoped students would remember about her, Ramos returned to the power of an individual voice to inspire others.
“When one voice turns into many, the collective is always going to be very powerful against any kind of force,” Ramos said.
Edited by Fashion Castillo and Leo Li