US civil rights leader Dolores Huerta dies aged 96

Pioneering US civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, who advocated for poor farm workers, has died at the age of 96, her family has announced.

The prominent labour organiser campaigned alongside fellow labour leader Cesar Chavez for farm workers' rights in the 1960s and 1970s, founding the transformative United Farm Workers Union (UFW) with him.

Huerta continued her advocacy work on immigration and voting issues through her foundation.

"As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for us, and we ask for privacy as we grieve this incredible loss to our family," family spokesman Erik Olvera said on Wednesday. The BBC has confirmed that Huerta died of cancer.

Born in New Mexico, Huerta grew up in Stockton, California, in the heart of the state's large agricultural industry. She was raised by her mother, who at one point worked at a cannery.

Huerta first became a teacher after graduating from university before turning to organising workers and shepherding the Chicano power movement. She became the emotional throughline of several revolutionary movements rallying for better wages, and living and working conditions for the poor.

She later worked on civil and women's rights and gender equality, as well as environmental issues, all while raising 11 children. She continued that work into her 90s.

"I would like to be remembered as a woman who cares for fellow humans," she is reported by multiple sources to have once said. "We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for."

Earlier this year, Huerta said Chavez, who died in 1993, had "manipulated and pressured" her into having sex and on another occasion forced her in the 1960s.

That was after the New York Times published an investigation detailing allegations from Huerta and two other women, who said Chavez groomed and sexually abused girls involved in the labour movement.

Huerta said the two encounters with Chavez resulted in pregnancies that she chose to keep secret, arranging for the children to be raised by other families.

Chavez's family said in a statement at the time that they were "devastated" by the reports and praised the women's "courage to come forward".

The UFW was among those paying tribute to Huerta, saying in a statement posted to social media that she had coined its motto - "Si Se Puede!", Spanish for "Yes, we can!" - which became a familiar rallying cry for activists seeking better working conditions for Hispanic farm workers.

"Her life's work was to empower her community to face and overcome injustices, and she has left farm workers and the entire Latino community stronger and more organised than she found it," the UFW said.

"Her commitment to civic engagement and bringing political power to disenfranchised people is a lesson we all should carry to the ballot box."

• Witness history: Cesar Chavez's campaign for farm workers

Huerta spent much of her life recruiting members to the union, protesting and picketing for various causes and helping negotiate the first farm worker contracts in North America.

Former US President Bill Clinton, who awarded Huerta the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998, said in a statement that he and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "lost a dear friend" and that "we've all lost a stalwart champion of working Americans".

"To see her in action was to witness a living legend who never stopped pushing for progress and seeing every new obstacle as a fresh opportunity to educate, to organise, and to uplift—even as those efforts sometimes brought her grave consequences," Clinton said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that Huerta "represented the best of us". He praised her "resolute spirit, her passion for justice and fairness, and her commitment to those overlooked and forgotten".

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass remembered Huerta as an "icon" and "fearless leader", who inspired many to activism and helped secure landmark protections nationwide.

Bass highlighted Huerta's work to amend laws to require overtime pay for farm workers after eight-hour days and her contributions to the first comprehensive standards to prevent heat deaths in California.

"Dolores reminded us that no matter the odds, no matter the obstacle, we can build a greater life for ourselves, our community, our city, and our country," she said.

Huerta also helped end what was known as the Bracero Program, where Mexican men were brought to work temporarily into the US, and helped negotiate the 1986 Immigration Reform Act, according to the union.

The president of the voting group Voto Latino, María Teresa Kumar, called Huerta a "civil rights giant" who gave "her entire life, until her final days, to championing and fighting injustice for everyone, no matter who they were or where they came from".

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, made up of Democrats from the Senate and House of Representatives, said in a statement on Wednesday that "Dolores Huerta defied definition".

"A national and international icon, her legacy is woven into the fabric of our history," they also said. "Her fight for justice will continue to inspire generations. Rest in power, hermana."