Mexican American labor activist Dolores Huerta died on Wednesday in her home in Bakersfield, California at 96.
Huerta, an icon of Chicano and labor activism in the United States, died of cancer.
“We know that many of you around the world share in our mourning, and we will be following up on plans to recognize and celebrate her incredible life and legacy,” her family posted on social media.
Even though Huerta was born in New Mexico and most of her labor activism with United Farm Workers — which she cofounded with César Chávez in 1962 — took place in California during the civil rights movements of the 1960s, Huerta had many ties to San Antonio.
She visited San Antonio in December to support Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ push to move municipal elections from May to November as a way of increasing voter participation.
During that visit, Huerta shared that her first job as a 25-year-old activist was to register voters, an experience that showed her the importance of voting participation.
“We can think of how many millions of people have really given up their lives in our wars we have had to save democracy,” Huerta said that day. “And we have a moment here in the City of San Antonio, where democracy is being highlighted, and where the city council members have an opportunity to show that they really do represent the people that elected them in order to have a proper representation.”
Jones said she owed her success in moving city elections to Huerta’s “forceful words.”
“I will cherish the times I was honored to be in her presence, always marveled by her courage and character. May perpetual light shine upon her,” Jones wrote on an Instagram post of her and Huerta walking arm in arm.
Earlier this year, Huerta inspired the renaming of San Antonio’s César Chávez Boulevard to its historic name of Durango Boulevard after publicly speaking about sexual abuse that she and other women and girls experienced at the hands of Chávez, a revered leader of farm workers and labor movements. Across the country, several monuments, streets and buildings were named in his honor.
The allegations prompted the cancellation of San Antonio’s yearly march in honor Chávez, who died in 1993. City Council voted unanimously in August to change the street name back to its former name.
Former mayor Ron Nirenberg said Huerta inspired hundreds of thousands in San Antonio.
“What started as a fight for our farmworkers has grown into a movement for a better nation and a better future for all,” Nirenberg said, posting a photo of him and Huerta together. “We honor her legacy by carrying that fight forward, every single day. Sí se puede.”
Huerta continued to use her platform to advocate for different civil rights issues late into her life and often appealed to San Antonio’s large Hispanic and Latino population.
In 2022, she was at La Villita to support then gubernatorial hopeful Beto O’Rourke.
In 2020, Huerta stopped by San Antonio to encourage Latinos to vote and participate in that year’s census.
“I want to remind all of us of the power we have,” Huerta said then. “The Latinos together with the African American community, with women, feminists — we are the referees in the election. We can call the election. We can make it happen.”
This story first appeared in the San Antonio Report.