Dolores Huerta, Farmworker Union Co-Founder and Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 96

Dolores Huerta, the labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Cesar Chavez, died Wednesday in California at the age of 96, her family said in a statement. Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 and then the United Farm Workers of America. The union was credited with improving pay and conditions for agricultural workers through a series of strikes. From 1965 to 1970 it organized the Delano grape strike, which ended in major gains for farmworkers' labor rights. In later years Huerta became heavily involved in the women's liberation and immigrant rights movements and was a major supporter of the Democratic Party. In March, The New York Times published an investigation into Chavez's history of sexual abuse of women and girls in the farmworkers' movement. Huerta then revealed that Chavez had also raped her, and she said the assaults led to the births of two of her children.

Left-leaning coverage, represented here by The Guardian US, runs under a headline calling the piece "a life in pictures." It opens with her family's statement on her death and presents her as a celebrated 1960s labor and civil rights figure. It stresses her role with Chavez in founding the UFW and its record of improving pay and conditions for farmworkers. In the excerpt available, it does not mention the abuse allegations. Alternative outlets Truthout and Democracy Now! frame the story as a personal remembrance, built around journalist Maria Hinojosa, who says Huerta was an organizer, feminist and optimist who also loved life. Democracy Now! adds details the Guardian excerpt lacks: the Delano strike dates, her Democratic Party ties, and her disclosure of being raped by Chavez. Both sides agree on her age, the date of her death and her co-founding of the UFW. Right-leaning outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left-leaning and alternative outlets had, and those outlets focus on her legacy as an organizer.