Dolores Huerta praised role of Filipino farm workers and Larry Itliong

Dolores Huerta with Larry Itliong, left, and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers.

Dolores Huerta, the fiery and resolute co-founder of what became the United Farm Workers, died Wednesday, Oct. 28, at her home in Bakersfield, California, at the age of 96. 

While mainstream media obituaries will rightfully laud her for coining the immortal rallying cry "Sí, se puede" and spending seven decades organizing for the dispossessed, an essential truth of her legacy must not be left out of the history lessons: Huerta was one of the loudest, most consistent voices demanding just credit for the Filipino labor organizers who built the modern farmworkers' movement.

For years, Huerta used her platform to correct the mainstream narrative that treated the movement as strictly Chicano. She frequently reminded audiences that the historic September 8, 1965, Delano grape strike was started not by Mexicans, but by the Filipino "Manongs" of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). 

"If you knew the history of labor, you knew Filipinos in California," Huerta famously declared, explicitly pointing out how growers historically used ethnic divide-and-conquer tactics until Filipino and Mexican leaders made the conscious choice to lock arms in solidarity.

Huerta frequently reminds audiences that the historic 1965 Delano grape strike was not initiated by Mexican Americans, but rather by Filipino workers. 

"The historic Delano grape strike started on September the 8th of 1965. The Filipino farm workers went out on strike," she recalled. "And they were treated so brutally by the grape growers... They turned off the lights and the gas [in the labor camps], and then some of the Filipino workers were beaten." 

Huerta often proudly shares the story of how she personally recruited the legendary Filipino labor leader Larry Itliong into the broader organizing effort in Stockton during the late 1950s, before the UFW was even formed. 

She has joked in speeches, "I have the great honor, and I will brag about it, that I organized Larry Itliong," noting that she intentionally sought him out because her Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) desperately needed a strong Filipino organizer to unify the workforce 

She explains that her own organization (the NFWA) had not planned to strike for several more years, but the bravery of the Filipino workers forced a choice. She recalls telling her members that they had to vote on whether they were ready to walk out in solidary to "support the Filipino farm workers," to which the Mexican workers agreed. 

Huerta was a close friend of the legendary Filipino leaders Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz though their relationships were complex, forged in the fires of intense union politics.

 Huerta proudly brags that she actually "organized" Larry Itliong in Stockton during the late 1950s when they both briefly worked under AWOC. She frequently described their bond as deeply personal, noting, "Larry and I have always been very, very close. He was a strong leader."

It was Itliong who ultimately convinced Cesar Chavez and Huerta to merge their respective associations to form the UFW. While Itliong later resigned from the union in 1971 due to frustration over the UFW sidelining its Filipino membership, his personal and professional respect for Huerta's organizing grit remained intact.

Philip Vera Cruz served directly alongside Huerta on the UFW executive board for years as the union's second vice president. They shared a mutual dedication to grassroots organizing and cross-cultural solidarity. 

Like Itliong, Vera Cruz eventually left the UFW over political disagreements regarding the centralized, often dictatorial leadership structure under Chavez. However, Huerta never stopped championing his legacy, consistently honoring him alongside Itliong as the indispensable architects of the movement.

Despite the fractures that caused both men to walk away from the UFW in the 1970s, neither Itliong nor Vera Cruz ever minimized Huerta's immense sacrifices. They frequently spoke of the grueling, unpaid hours, the constant threat of violence from growers, and the shared exhaustion of the Delano strike years. 

In later years, Vera Cruz acknowledged that Huerta, as a single mother of eleven children, faced unique societal pressures and hardships that the male leaders of the movement never had to endure, cementing a permanent respect for her endurance.

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In the male-dominated sphere of 1960s labor organizing, both Itliong and Vera Cruz deeply respected Huerta's formidable grit.

The complex knot of loyalty and silence within the UFW’s early leadership came into sharp focus and understanding why such a strong woman supported Chavez's leadership following Huerta’s recent public revelations in March 2026 regarding the severe abuse she quietly endured from Chavez. 

Reacting to those disclosures, Larry Itliong’s son, Johnny Itliong, spoke out to validate the immense pressure Huerta had been under. He noted that the Filipino leadership had long been aware of Chavez’s toxic internal behavior, adding a layer of retroactive clarity to why the old-school Filipino organizers like his father and Vera Cruz had fought so hard against the centralized power dynamic that Huerta had felt trapped into defending.

As we mourn the loss of Dolores Huerta today, we honor her not just for her own incredible strides, but for her refusal to let the foundational contributions of the Filipino American community be erased from the fields of California.

Dolores Huerta with Attorney General Rob Bonta.

In closing, we reprint the statement from Rob Bonta, California's Filipino American Attorney General, whose parents were UFW organizers.

“Dolores Huerta was a friend, a mentor, a source of inspiration and guidance, and a lifelong hero of mine.

"Her activism and inspiration touched countless lives, and her ongoing legacy will surely touch countless more in the years ahead. I’m grateful she had such an influence on my own life. From my early days growing up in the headquarters of the United Farmworkers of America, to my time in public office, she was a constant, firm, irresistible force for justice and needed change.

"Her rallying cry 'Sí Se Puede' perfectly encapsulated who she was — a woman full of fight and right who knew that if we worked together, there was nothing we couldn’t achieve.

"She helped shape the history of the farmworkers' movement and changed the face of the labor movement forever. She defined what it meant to own our power, use our voice, and ensure the people always remain the most potent force in our American democracy ... This is a devastating loss for so many in the labor movement and across the nation.”

Huerta's deep personal and professional partnership with Filipino organizers dismantled ethnic divide-and-conquer tactics, proving that enduring power is born when multi-racial communities unite against oppression and exploitation.

We honor Dolores Huerta, not only as the fiery co-founder of the United Farm Workers ]and also as a master strategist of the broader civil rights movement. Huerta understood that true social justice cannot exist in silos. By actively bridging communities, she recognized that the fight for farmworker dignity was inextricably linked to the larger struggle for racial, economic, and human rights across America.

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