Labor leader Dolores Huerta dies at 96

Dolores Huerta, the labor leader and civil rights figure who co-founded the United Farm Workers union, has died at the age of 96. Her family announced her death in a statement issued through her foundation, saying she died Wednesday at home of cancer.

Huerta spent decades working to improve conditions in the United States’ fruit and vegetable fields. She coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!”, which became a widespread rallying cry. The three-word Spanish-language slogan translates to “Yes, it can be done.”

“It was my personal pain, it was my personal problem and, you know, I think it was worth it because it was my cross to bear.”

Her resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. 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. She was the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. U.S. universities have given her nine honorary doctorates.

Schools in California, Texas and Colorado bear her name, as do streets, and her image graces many murals. But she did not always win favor with more liberal activists. In 2016, she endorsed Hillary Clinton rather than Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the presidential Democratic primary.

This year, Huerta sent shockwaves through the Latino community when she disclosed that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by the farmworker movement’s co-founder, César Chavez, leading to the birth of two children. It was a secret she kept for 60 years and long after he died.

Huerta said she had 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.