Social Justice & Community
Dolores Huerta Will Always Be With Us. ¡Presente!
The Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas mourns the passing of a legendary civil rights leader and gives thanks for her powerful legacy and special connection to our campus community.
The faculty, staff, and students of the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas at UC Santa Cruz express our deepest condolences to the family of Dolores Huerta. We mourn the loss of a civil rights icon, incredible community leader, and powerful advocate for social change.
In partnership with the Latin American and Latino Studies department, the Huerta Center will be preparing a special altar honoring Dolores Huerta at the 2026 Día de los Muertos Ceremonia, hosted by El Centro on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026 at the Quarry Amphitheatre.
Huerta’s legacy has influenced and inspired our center’s work and values for decades, and she embodied the leadership and values of justice, dignity, and equity that we sought to amplify. This connection to Dolores Huerta is deeply felt by our community and is especially meaningful for our students. Earlier this year, as we celebrated Dolores Huerta Day on April 10th, students articulated the importance of having a research center on campus dedicated to her:
- “Her work has always been inspiring, and it serves as representation for the people who historically have not been represented in the movement, like women, like laborers, like the Latin community.”
- “It serves as a catalyst for what I’m able to do as someone who wants to go into social justice.”
- “Having her represented here on campus means that my identity is validated.”
- “The research center to me not only means honoring the legacy of all the incredible work that she did for decades, but also means ensuring that that legacy continues.”
Dolores Huerta held the core belief that we must prioritize creating opportunities for students to “get a sense of their own empowerment” as changemakers for social justice. This conviction was central to the legacy that she envisioned for her own life’s work.
We are humbled to lead a research center named in her honor. Dolores Huerta left us with no questions about what direction we need to go in as a society to continue her life’s work. In her memory, we have no intention of giving up the fight. ¡Sí, se puede! Rest in power!
—The faculty, staff, and students of the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas
Honoring Dolores Huerta’s legacy
Dolores Huerta’s influence and representation on UC Santa Cruz’s campus is a source of inspiration for our students and the root of many impactful projects and collaborations. In 2022, the Research Center for the Americas became the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas (Huerta Center) on its 30th anniversary. For the faculty and staff of the Huerta Center, we felt it was important to publicly recognize Dolores Huerta on behalf of the UC Santa Cruz community, which has long considered her a role model.
During the renaming celebration, Dolores expressed her hopes for what impact the center might make in her name: “Through the center, we will be able to change history and make history and make the world a better place.”
As a research center carrying her name, we take seriously the honor and responsibility of stewarding her distinguished life as an extension of her legacy. In this vein, the Huerta Center established the Legislative Fellowship Program in 2023, which empowers undergraduate students and supports their leadership through the opportunity of a paid internship in a local legislator’s office.
In 2024, thanks to a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation and early support from the UCSC Foundation, the Huerta Center at UC Santa Cruz also established a partnership with the Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) to support developing public archives of the life and legacy of Dolores Huerta and the Dolores Huerta Foundation by Fall 2027.
As a part of the archives project, the DHF and Huerta Center staff developed and released a set of K-12 lesson plans and teacher guides that celebrate and explore the life and legacy of Dolores Huerta, while encouraging students towards civic and community engagement. These are just some examples of how this small but mighty woman will live on in our hearts, hands, and minds.