Cesar Chavez, the iconic labor leader, is accused of sexually assaulting two under-aged girls in the 1970s as well as fellow farmworker leader Dolores Huerta in the 1960s, according to an investigation from the New York Times.
The newspaper interviewed two women who said they were sexually abused by Chavez — one repeatedly — when they were children.
“Both women have struggled with depression, panic attacks and substance abuse in the years since. They maintained their silence for decades, fearing speaking out would tarnish Mr. Chavez’s legacy, but decided in recent months, after being approached by reporters, that their stories also counted,” the paper reported.
Huerta told the paper she was raped by Chavez in 1966.
“Mr. Chavez drove her out to a secluded grape field in Delano, Calif., parked and forced her to have sex inside the vehicle. She said she chose not to report the assault to the police because of their hostility toward the movement, and she feared that no one within the union would believe her,” the paper reported.
In an Instagram post, Huerta said for the last 60 years she’s kept this secret because, “I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”
L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, left, sits with activists Dolores Huerta, Rachel Kirk and Reina Schmitz during the California Democratic Party State Convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Feb. 21.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Huerta said she experienced two separate sexual encounters with Chavez. The first time she was, “manipulated and pressured into having sex with him,” she said, and felt she couldn’t say anything because he was her boss and the leader “of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to.”
“The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped,” her statement said. “I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret.”
Huerta became pregnant from both sexual encounters and later arranged for the children to be raised by other families.
“Over the years, I have been fortunate to develop a deep relationship with these children, who are now close to my other children, their siblings,” the statement said. “But even then, no one knew the full truth about how they were conceived until just a few weeks ago.”
The New York Times’ investigation found Chavez fathered four children out of wedlock with three women and that there had been “whispers within the movement” for decades about his conduct.
The paper reported that a handful of Chavez’s relatives and former farmworker leaders have been aware of allegations of sexual misconduct for years but found no evidence that they made any efforts to investigate the accusations against him or acknowledge the victims.
Huerta told the New York Times, “the knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years.”
The revelations come a day after the United Farm Workers said it would not participate in celebrations of Chavez due to “troubling allegations” against him.
The claims against Chavez “are incompatible with our organization’s values. Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on. Far more troubling are allegations involving abuse of young women or minors. Allegations that very young women or girls may have been victimized are crushing. We have not received any direct reports, and we do not have any firsthand knowledge of these allegations,” the union said.
Tuesday morning, the Cesar Chavez Foundation said in a statement that it had “become aware of disturbing allegations that Cesar Chavez engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with women and minors during his time as President of the United Farm Workers of America.”
The foundation said it was working with leaders in the farmworker movement to be responsive to these allegations and support the people who might have been harmed.
Bursting into national prominence in the mid-1960s in the San Joaquin Valley, Chavez galvanized public support on behalf of them after organizing community groups across Central and Southern California. For decades, agricultural laborers had lived in substandard housing and were paid terrible wages. Efforts to organize migrant laborers were usually crushed violently by farmers and local law enforcement.
But Chavez’s legacy became increasingly tarnished as the years went on. Labor victories became fewer and fewer. His fierce criticism of illegal immigration — Chavez argued that they undercut his unionization efforts — put him at odds with immigration activists. A 2006 Times investigation detailed how dozens of former associates and workers left the UFW because of what they described as Chavez’s increasingly autocratic ways.
