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Dolores Huerta dies at 96 after years of Virginia activism

Sabrina Moreno

Dolores Huerta smiling — Fun fact: Dolores Huerta was who inspired President Obama's "Yes we can" slogan during his first presidential campaign. She won the Medal of Freedom in 2012. Photo: Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Dolores Huerta, the pioneering labor organizer who co-founded the United Farm Workers and coined the rallying cry "Sí, se puede," died Wednesday in her California home. She was 96.

The big picture: The civil rights legend who helped transform the American labor movement became a force in Virginia politics, spending over a decade mobilizing the state's Latino voters as they became a growing electorate.

In 2018 — the same year the Valentine museum screened a documentary about her — she came to Richmond to celebrate former Gov. Ralph Northam's inauguration.

She also hit the campaign trail for state lawmakers and gubernatorial candidates like Terry McAuliffe.
And at 95, she campaigned alongside now-Gov. Spanberger last October in Alexandria.

Zoom in: She made regular appearances at schools and colleges, speaking to students at Shenandoah University in 2018, JMU in 2022, and a Fairfax County high school this February.

Looking back on generations of activism, she told the Fairfax students, "Young people like yourself are the ones who did it."

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