Becky G Mourns Dolores Huerta: 'A True Legend' Dead at 96

Singer Becky G paid tribute to labor leader Dolores Huerta on Wednesday, calling her "a true legend" after Huerta died at the age of 96.

"A fierce & courageous woman with such a gentle heart," Becky G wrote in an Instagram Stories post, pairing the words with a black-and-white photo of Huerta. "Dolores, knowing you is one of my life's greatest joys and inspirations. Our shared tears, laughs, & dances will live in my heart forever. This one hurts but I know you'll be watching over us always… Rest in peace & power."

Who was Dolores Huerta?

Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers and spent her life fighting for immigrant farm workers, Latinos, and women. She also coined the phrase "Sí, se puede!" — the rallying cry that still anchors movements and marches across the country.

Her work earned her the country's top honors. In 2012, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. Well into her 90s, she kept traveling and speaking on race, poverty, and women's rights through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, based in Bakersfield, California.

What connects the singer to the organizer?

The two shared more than heritage. Becky G, a Mexican American artist and vocal advocate for the Latino community and immigrant rights, presented Huerta with the inaugural Luminary Award last year at the La Cena Celebration of Latino Culture in Hollywood.

At the time, Becky G called Huerta "one of the greatest labor and civil rights leaders of our time — her work has paved the way for so many and continues to inspire many through her work with local grassroots, nation and global leaders."

The admiration ran both recent and deep. In Rolling Stone's American Icons package earlier this year, Becky G wrote about the strength of immigrant workers in America and pointed to Huerta as her model.

"With the labor movement leader Dolores Huerta, someone who also is a proud Mexican American, who has dedicated her entire life to this stuff, as my inspiration, it's been a beautiful journey, but also a painful one knowing that there's still so much work to do," she wrote.

That line now reads as an accidental elegy. Huerta built institutions that outlast her — the union she co-founded, the foundation that carries her name, and a slogan that turns up at nearly every march for labor and immigrant rights.

For Becky G, the loss is personal before it's political: shared tears, laughs, and dances, as she put it. For the movements Huerta organized, the test is whether the next generation — singers and organizers alike — keeps saying "Sí, se puede" with the same force.