Dolores Huerta, pioneering labor organizer and civil rights icon, dies at 96

(AP) - Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation’s fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!” that became a widespread rallying cry, has died. She was 96.

Huerta’s family said in a statement through her foundation that she died Wednesday at home.

Huerta was born in New Mexico and raised by a single mother in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where she worked as a school teacher and then helped found a local chapter of a grassroots organization that fought segregation and police brutality.

She quickly turned her interests to farm laborers and co-founded with César Chavez what eventually became the United Farm Workers of America.

Huerta’s resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Her three-word Spanish-language slogan — which translates to “Yes, it can be done” — was grounded in the belief that people could affect change.

Her work over the decades earned her a number of accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. When then-President Barack Obama presented the award in 2012, he praised Huerta as a tenacious leader and joked that he had stolen her slogan for his 2008 campaign.

This year, Huerta sent shockwaves through the Latino community and activist circles when she revealed that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by Chavez, leading to the birth of two children, a secret she kept for 60 years and long after he died.

From the early 1970s on, Huerta’s life partner was Richard Chavez, César’s brother, and together they had four kids. She also had seven children from two earlier marriages.

Huerta said she stayed silent for so long because she feared that coming forward would compromise her life’s work and unravel all the progress made for workers.

In the wake of the revelation, she urged people to stand firm in fighting for their rights.

Even into her mid-90s, Huerta marched and spoke in cities nationwide on race, poverty and women’s rights on behalf of her California-based Dolores Huerta Foundation.