Dolores Huerta, labor and civil-rights leader, dies at 96

Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers with César Chavez. The union was established to improve working conditions for farmworkers, including people working in the United States’ fruit and vegetable fields. Her organizing and union work made her a labor leader and civil-rights activist whose efforts improved conditions for migrant and farmworkers.

The movement associated with Huerta also carried a distinctive message. She was credited with coining “Sí, se puede!”—“Yes, we can”—which became a widespread rallying cry. Former President Barack Obama later adopted or adapted the slogan and presented Huerta with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

Huerta’s activism extended beyond labor organizing. PBS NewsHour and France 24 reported that she remained active in later years on issues including race, poverty, LGBTQ+ rights and women’s rights. PBS said she continued speaking and marching on those issues into her 90s, while France 24 reported that her activism continued through the last months of her life.

Reporting on the cause of death was not uniform. TIME said Huerta’s team did not provide a cause in its statement and cited a New York Times report that cancer was behind her death. The Hindu attributed the cancer information to family spokesman Erik Olvera, while a PBS NewsHour program summary also said she died from cancer. The family statement itself, as described by TIME, did not specify a cause.

The confirmed accounts of Huerta’s death close a life defined in the reporting by two connected forms of organizing: improving conditions for farmworkers through union work and continuing campaigns for civil and social rights. Her slogan’s broad reach and her later activism placed that work beyond a single workplace or cause.