Dolores Huerta, the California labor organizer who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association and popularized the slogan "Sí, se puede," died Wednesday morning in Bakersfield at age 96, her family said¹.

A family statement said relatives were deeply saddened and would announce plans to recognize her life, according to SFGATE¹. Family spokesperson Erik Olvera told the outlet she had been battling cancer and declined to name the type¹.

Huerta was born in New Mexico in 1930 and raised in Stockton¹. In 1962 she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with César Chávez, a forerunner of the United Farm Workers, and helped organize the Delano grape strike and campaigns tied to California's Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975^1,2.

Her later work included immigration policy, women's rights and voter registration^1,2. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom¹.

Olvera told SFGATE she had remained active in organizing, including midterm voter turnout, until recent weeks¹. Nevada Current reported tributes from Nevada officials and labor groups⁴.

SFGATE noted that in March Huerta publicly said Chávez had sexually abused her decades earlier; Olvera declined to discuss that account while the family was in mourning¹.

Minnesota Reformer carried a 19th News account of her farmworker and women's rights work².