Nava Honors Huerta's Legacy

Director Gregory Nava and producer Barbara Martinez Jitner are completing a film about Dolores Huerta following her death at age 96. Huerta died Wednesday morning at her home, surrounded by family. A family spokesperson identified cancer as the cause of death.

The couple spent approximately three years preparing the first dramatic feature focused on Huerta's life. Nava is writing and directing the project, while Martinez Jitner serves as co-writer and producer. Huerta granted the pair exclusive access after evaluating numerous other filmmakers. In her final years, she shared more than 70 hours of previously unrecorded details with them.

Nava and Martinez Jitner traveled to Bakersfield, Calif., on Tuesday night to spend time with Huerta before her passing. In a joint statement, they described themselves as "blessed to be by Dolores' side." They characterized her as "a great light and a fearless warrior for justice" who "set the world ablaze with her passion for equality."

Huerta was a co-founder of the United Farm Workers and the originator of the phrase "Sí, se puede." Born in Dawson, New Mexico, in 1930, she left her teaching career in the 1950s to organize farmworkers. She and Cesar Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. She helped lead the 1965 Delano grape strike and negotiated the first field contracts with Larry Itliong.

The labor leader faced physical violence during a 1988 protest in San Francisco, where a police officer broke four of her ribs and ruptured her spleen. She later spent a decade recruiting Latinas for political office. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. California designated April 10 as Dolores Huerta Day in 2018.

Nava previously earned an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of "El Norte." He also directed "Selena," a 1997 film that launched Jennifer Lopez's career. Martinez Jitner joined his team after that production. She became the first Latina to executive produce a primetime network drama when she worked on PBS' "American Family" in 2002. All three of Nava's major films are preserved in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

Last October, Nava presented Huerta with an Icon Award at the Critics Choice Association's Celebration of Latino Cinema and Television in Beverly Hills. At the time, she urged young attendees to engage directly with civic issues. Nava and Martinez Jitner wrote that the "baton is now in our hands." They concluded their tribute with her signature words: "Sí, se puede."