A labor leader and activist, Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, which became the United Farm Workers union. The UFW’s grape boycott in the late 1960s forced grape producers to improve working conditions for migrant farmworkers. In 1988 she was severely beaten by police while protesting at a rally, and has continued to advocate for the poor, women, and children ever since—today as founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.