![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1028_NHUERTA_tribute.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBakersfield, Calif.
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOct. 29, 2026, 12:00 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t4 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n
When Cecilia L\u00f3pez Mora got news of the passing of iconic labor leader Dolores Huerta early Wednesday, she thought of the higher wages and protections she benefited from when she harvested grapes in the mid-1990s in her hometown of Wasco.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s because of her that I got paid more picking grapes,\u201d she says in Spanish. \u201cDolores worked in the fields, just like me. She knew what it was like. She helped people like us … the farmworkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. L\u00f3pez Mora retired earlier this year after more than two decades of working in the grape fields and later in packing houses. She says Mrs. Huerta\u2019s memory gives her hope and strength to continue to fight for herself and others. Particularly at a time of upheaval in U.S. immigration policy that is affecting farm workers along with others. In recent days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have made arrests and taken people away in her Wasco neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Huerta, a pioneering labor activist and civil rights leader who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 with C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez, died surrounded by her family in Bakersfield, California, according to a statement to the Monitor from family spokesperson Erik Olvera.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Susan Montoya Bryan\/AP<\/p>\n
A collection of photographs, candles and flowers adorn an altar in honor of Dolores Huerta at Old Town Plaza in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Huerta had remained politically active, organizing and protesting up until a few months ago against ICE operations that have swept through the San Joaquin Valley and across the state for the past couple of years. Federal officers\u2019 immigration enforcement activity in the days and weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election has drawn criticism for inducing fear in some communities.<\/p>\n
Bakersfield, at the southern end of the valley, is an agricultural and oil production hub. More than half the population is Latino. California was one of nine states where a federal judge last week said the Department of Homeland Security should stop doing \u201celections-related field operations and field interviews\u201d if officials suspect residents are U.S. citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many farmworkers were already in the fields when news of Mrs. Huerta\u2019s death began circulating early Wednesday. But in the evening, around 100 people holding candles gathered in downtown Bakersfield.<\/p>\n
Lori de Leon, one of Mrs. Huerta\u2019s daughters, encouraged the crowd to go out and vote. \u201cMy mother always said voting is the most important day of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon’t be fearful. Take a stand. Help support immigrants,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1028_NHUERTA_historic_photo.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Court Mast\/AP\/File<\/p>\n
United Farm Workers leader Dolores Huerta, center, leads a rally in San Francisco’s Mission District on Nov. 19, 1988, along with Howard Wallace, president of the San Francisco chapter of the UFW, left, and Maria Elena Chavez, 16, the daughter of Cesar Chavez, right, as part of a national boycott of what the UFW claims is the dangerous use of pesticides on table grapes.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Huerta was key in laying the groundwork for what became the United Farm Workers. She played a central role in the 1965-1970 Delano grape strike, fought for collective bargaining, and coined the rallying cry \u201cS\u00ed, se puede,\u201d or \u201cYes, we can.\u201d Her organizing was instrumental in California\u2019s Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which granted farmworkers the legal right to form unions, hold secret-ballot elections, and bargain collectively with their employers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In March \u2013 following a New York Times investigation into Mr. Ch\u00e1vez’s sexual misconduct \u2013 Mrs. Huerta publicly stated that she had been sexually abused and raped by Mr. Ch\u00e1vez in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Audrey Chavez, co-owner of Martin’s Meats and Deli in downtown Bakersfield, tended to a makeshift memorial for Mrs. Huerta next to her shop. She placed yellow flowers in a vase in front of a mural of Mrs. Huerta speaking into a bullhorn. The depiction of Mrs. Huerta is part of a larger mural that reads \u201cHuman kindness opens doors. All are welcome here.\u201d Jorge Guillen, a local Chicano artist, is in the midst of finishing the mural.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1028_NHUERTA_Audrey_Chavez.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cindy Carcamo\/The Christian Science Monitor<\/p>\n
Audrey Chavez, co-owner of Martin’s Meats and Deli, stands in front of a newly painted mural of Dolores Huerta next to her shop. She erected a makeshift memorial to Mrs. Huerta soon after hearing about her death Oct. 28, 2026. Mrs. Chavez and Mrs. Huerta were friends.<\/p>\n
Inside the deli, Mrs. Chavez displays a bullhorn that Mrs. Huerta signed for her last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI put it on this table today, just as a reminder of her life and her presence and her support and her voice and her call to action,\u201d Mrs. Chavez says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In recent months, Mrs. Chavez has used the bullhorn to protest against increasing ICE actions in the Central Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDolores has really led a life of advocating for the vulnerable and underserved and those who are often misunderstood,\u201d Mrs. Chavez says. \u201cHer memory reminds people to really tap into our conscience as a nation and as human beings, to strive for a more equitable world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most people were at work as she spoke, including farmworkers laboring in the fields throughout Kern County, picking table grapes as the harvest wound down for the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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