Dolores Huerta, California labor leader, to lie in honor at State Capitol

Don Sweeney and Michael McGough, The Sacramento Bee on Nov 5, 2026

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Farmworker rights activist Dolores Huerta will lie in honor at the State Capitol following her death at age 96, California state officials said.

Huerta, a longtime labor leader who worked to improve the lives and working conditions of California’s migrant laborers, died Oct. 28, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Members of the public are invited to pay their respects to Huerta from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. 16 as she lies in honor at the capitol.

The tribute was announced in a news release Thursday by Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas.

“The impact Dolores Huerta made on the state and this nation was immeasurable,” Limón said in a statement.

“Dolores negotiated my grandfather’s first union contract at Almaden Vineyards,” Rivas said. “Generations of California families live with the freedoms and opportunities she helped them secure.”

Who was Dolores Huerta?

Huerta, who along with activist Cesar Chavez was instrumental in creating the United Farm Workers union and is credited by some as coining its “si se puede” slogan (Spanish for “yes we can”), earned numerous humanitarian awards for her accomplishments. Since 2018, her April 10 birthday has been Dolores Huerta Day in California.

When the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and National Farm Workers Association merged in 1965 to become the UFW, Huerta was appointed a vice president — a role in which she became one of the union’s lead negotiators.

Huerta’s legacy and inextricable link to Chavez returned to the national spotlight earlier this year when allegations arose that Chavez sexually abused multiple teenage girls and women during the 1960s and 1970s.

Huerta, in a New York Times report published in March, disclosed for the first time publicly that Chavez sexually assaulted her.

What does it mean to lie in honor?

Lying in honor at a capitol is reserved for private citizens, civil rights leaders or public figures who rendered distinguished service outside a traditional government or military office, the Architects of the Capitol said.

Government officials, elected leaders and military officers are said to lie in state.

Prominent public officials or honorees are said to lie in repose when their casket is displayed in a prominent public building other than the main legislative or government center, such as a presidential library, cathedral or university.

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