DREDF mourns the loss of Dolores Huerta, a lifelong organizer whose work helped advance the rights of farmworkers and whose legacy reaches across movements for justice.
Huerta helped co-found the farmworker movement and fought for better wages, safer working conditions, disability insurance for injured farmworkers, and protections from dangerous pesticides. Her organizing helped change the conditions under which farmworkers lived and worked, and her rallying cry, “¡Sí, se puede!” continues to inspire people fighting for change.
Her legacy also reminds us that disability rights are intertwined and connected to other social movements: labor rights, racial justice, immigrant rights, and the fight for safe and dignified working conditions. Disabled people are part of every movement, and our rights are never separate from the conditions in which we live, work, learn, play, and participate in our communities.
Civil rights protections are won through organizing, collective action, and the determination of people who refuse to accept discrimination as inevitable. We honor Dolores Huerta by continuing that work and building movements in which the people most affected by injustice lead the way.
Descansa en poder, Dolores. ¡Sí, se puede!
