Dolores Huerta, the civil rights and labor leader who co-founded the United Farm Workers alongside Cesar Chavez, has died. Her family announced the passing. Huerta is one of the most consequential labor and civil rights figures in American history — a Chicana activist who spent decades organizing farmworkers in California and across the country at a time when agricultural laborers had no formal union protections, no collective bargaining rights, and endured brutal working conditions for poverty wages. She coined the phrase “Sí se puede” — Yes We Can — which became one of the most recognizable slogans in American social movement history. Her death closes a chapter of the American labor movement that transformed the lives of millions of working people.

BREAKING NATIONAL / OBITUARY  ·  DOLORES HUERTA  ·  UNITED FARM WORKERS  ·  CIVIL RIGHTS  ·  LABOR  ·  CO-FOUNDER  ·  DEATH

STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA — Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, has died. Her family announced her passing, according to Sun Sentinel and family statements. Her age at death, the cause of death, the location of her passing, and the family statement in full were not detailed in initial reporting. Huerta was born on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico. No further details on services or memorial plans were immediately available.

Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chavez in 1962, after the two worked together through the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group. The UFW grew out of the merger of the Huerta and Chavez National Farm Workers Association with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. The union became nationally prominent through the Delano grape strike beginning in 1965, during which farmworkers walked off California grape vineyards and called for a national consumer boycott of California table grapes. The boycott lasted five years and attracted support from the civil rights movement, the Catholic Church, and the broader American labor movement. By 1970, major grape growers had signed contracts with the UFW, representing a historic victory for agricultural workers who had been explicitly excluded from the National Labor Relations Act since 1935.

Si Se Puede and the Legacy

Dolores Huerta is credited with coining the phrase “Si Se Puede” — Yes We Can — during the 1972 UFW campaign in Arizona. The phrase became one of the defining slogans of American progressive activism and was adopted by the 2008 Obama presidential campaign as “Yes We Can.” Huerta was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2012. She continued her activism into her nineties through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which she founded in 2002 to organize communities in the San Joaquin Valley and beyond. Her legacy intersects the labor movement, the Chicano civil rights movement, and the feminist movement — she was a persistent advocate for women’s leadership within the UFW and in political organizing more broadly. She was also a mother of eleven children, a biographical detail that underscored the extraordinary demands of her decades of full-time activism.

“Sí Se Puede. We showed the world that working people, when they stand together, cannot be defeated. That truth will outlast all of us.” — Dolores Huerta, in a late-life interview

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

► Full family statement — official announcement of cause of death and age at passing.

► Memorial services — public and private services announced by the Huerta family.

► Presidential response — White House and congressional statements on the passing.

► UFW statement — United Farm Workers tribute and legacy reflection.

► National memorial — whether a national day of recognition is proposed.

CONFIDENCE: MODERATE

Dolores Huerta death confirmed by Sun Sentinel and family statements. Sun Sentinel is a regional Florida newspaper. Family statement is primary source but reported via regional outlet rather than wire. Age at death, cause, and full family statement NOT confirmed in initial reporting — flagged. Huerta biography, UFW history, and Si Se Puede attribution from established documented historical record.

Bias Check
Left-Lean	Center	Right-Lean
Frames Huerta passing as call to renew labor and immigrant rights organizing.	Reports confirmed the death of United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta as announced by family via Sun Sentinel.	No significant right-lean political framing dimension to this obituary story.
Assessment	ONYX presents confirmed death of a historically documented American civil rights and labor figure. Biography and legacy from established historical record. Obituary format with no partisan editorial framing adopted.

SOURCES

► Sun Sentinel, family statements — Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers co-founder and civil rights icon, has died; family announced the passing