UNIPA News reports that civil rights leader Dolores Huerta has accused late labor organizer Cesar Chavez of sexually assaulting her in the 1960s. Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union alongside Chavez, stated she was pressured into one encounter and forced into another, according to a new report detailing broader allegations against Chavez.
The report included testimonies from multiple women who said Chavez molested and assaulted them when they were minors. Huerta said her first sexual encounter with Chavez occurred after she was “manipulated and pressured” and “didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement.” She added that the second encounter was forced “against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.”
Explaining her silence for decades, Huerta, 96, said, “I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for. Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.”
The Chavez family did not dispute the allegations and expressed devastation over the report. “We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward,” the family said, referring to Chavez as “our father.”
In response to the allegations, the United Farm Workers canceled planned celebrations of Chavez, and some cities have also canceled or renamed events previously held in his honor.
