aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/18/dolores-huerta-sexual-violence-survivors-speak-out-against-cesar-chavez

"“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work,” Huerta said in her statement.

“I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farmworkers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights.”

Huerta explained that the first time she had s***with Chavez, she was “manipulated and pressured” into submitting to his advances while on a trip to San Juan Capistrano.

“I didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to,” she said.

The second time, she said she was “forced, against my will”. The New York Times investigation includes a summary of what Huerta says happened: She was in a car that Chavez was driving when he parked in an isolated grape field and raped her.

Both instances resulted in pregnancies, which Huerta says she kept secret. The children were ultimately given to other families to raise.

“I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret,” she said.

Her story was echoed by the accounts of other women featured in The New York Times investigation.

One of the interviewees, Ana Murguia, said she was 13 when a 45-year-old Chavez kissed her, took off her clothes and tried to have s***with her in his locked office.

He had known her since she was eight years old, and the abuse at his hands prompted her to attempt suicide.

Debra Rojas, meanwhile, was 12 years old when Chavez began groping her. She described being 15 when she was raped by him at a motel near Stockton, California.

A third woman, Esmeralda Lopez, said she was 19 when Chavez tried to pressure her to have s***with him while they were alone on a tour, offering to use his influence to get something named in her honour.

Lopez said she refused his advances, and her mother, a fellow activist, corroborated her account, based on conversations they had at the time.

The women explained that they grappled with whether to come forward and whether they would be believed, given Chavez’s rise to fame as a civil rights hero."

Goddamn. this is f***ed man.

obviously no man is infallible, but it sucks to see a guy I grew up with viewing as a historical hero for laborers and minorities in the U.S getting this type of press.

and to me, the fact that his coalition United Farm Workers and the Black Panther Party had such strong ties really ignited my ideas of a sort of utopian class / racial solidarity, instead of all of us using whatever scraps we can to form our own boat.

That's real as f*** what she said. I was holding off until I heard what she said cause they were talking about it before she made a statement, but I believe it wholeheartedly now. S*** is crazy.

We're going thru a crazy ride these days finding out many of our most influential figures were scumbags.

Why the f*** are so many schools named after him?

Historic civil rights leader ?

Oh, I see both sides like Chavez.

Pretty heartbreaking and conflicting to hear this as a fellow Latino.

The fact that she fought through all those movements knowing this happened to her and approaching it with the mentality of putting the Farm workers first ahead of her own personal legitimate pain is... superhuman to me.

Lord knows what the Media would have done to Hispanics if this news was brokenout during the peak of those civil rights movements. Hispanics would surely all be painted as PDFs and the discrimination would have been far worse.

I hope at the very least they either formerly rename the day to reflect these victims names, or if they go by the way of just acknowledging it as Farm Workers/Braceros Day, then have their names shined and brightened at the very beginning and never try to do anything to erase their legacy. They suffered for US.

It wasn’t known he did this at the time

because he's been arguably the most influential Latino in recent U.S History socially. The fact that U.S Politicians even focus on the Latino vote is in large part due to United Farm Workers.

The idea of widespread successful labor lobbying and unionizing within the American agriculture space was built on their work.

as the face of the Latino worker's right's movement, someone who fought for affordable housing and Latino communities in California, they set up daycares, credit unions, and Spanish radio stations that really rallied Latinos and helped them gain resources to thrive in America.

he was an anti-immigrant hack and a reformist. farm workers deserve better leaders.

Very smart lady. The type of person to found something so monumental to begin with.

Very true as well.

true but we dont need this energy itt and rather focus on the victims of this

wym? his political opportunism and machismo are all connected. if you want to keep women safe and be concerned about the victims then keep them safe when they are out here fighting for their rights since that's where they were harmed.

Yeah she needs a highlight as equal as the dude if she carried double the mental weight on this s***.

"Strongly opposed to illegal immigration, specifically the use of undocumented immigrants as strikebreakers by growers in the 1960s and 1970s"

I mean it was a necessary evil to have this stance for a major domestic issue he was tackling despite what was happening across the border because of the CIA. Unless there are other leaders I should look up from during the time if you have any names?

"What is disturbing about Chavez and the union’s actions is how rigid and unwilling they were to consider that the issue was more complicated. Some Chican@ organizations and leaders, among them Bert Corona, cautioned Chavez that alienating undocumented workers was a disastrous mistake. Others complained that Chavez was spending entirely too much of his (and the union’s) efforts on the “Illegals Campaign.” Others still worried that Chavez was making enemies of people who in fact were allies in this class and social struggle."

Ah I see the picture now. Sounds like some uppity ass hispanics I knew from growing up.

Yeah but also he was consciously given the face of the movement to prevent persecution of its communist backend among filipino farmers like Larry Itiliong

if he did it then why did the alleged victims wait until 2026 to talk

Oh goddamn what the f***?

Where I live when a new school got made called Cesar Chavez it meant the area was improving

I didn’t know that

they literally say why right out the gate then go into more detail lol

that dude is a troll

oh my b, i aint been in the sxn in about a month or two im not familar with the current sxn ecosystem yet lmao

you good. that’s why he did the typical victim blaming statement