Cesar Chavez’s closest ally reveals he raped her and got her pregnant twice: ‘My silence ends here’

Civil rights figure Cesar Chavez has been accused of horrific sexual abuse by his United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta.

A New York Times investigation revealed Chavez sexually abused Huerta and several other women throughout his rise.

Huerta described a winter night in 1966 in Delano, California. She said he drove her out to a secluded field then raped her inside the vehicle.

She chose not to report the assault to the police because of the hostility towards the farmworker union movement, and also believed no-one within the union would believe her story.

Huerta also described an encounter six years earlier when he pressured her to have sex with him in a hotel room during a work trip in San Juan Capistrano in Southern California.

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

Huerta’s telling of the events is the first time publicly she has done so, and she says she only spoke out because of Chavez’s other accusers.

The two sexual encounters resulted in pregnancies, she said, that she concealed and then had the babies, arranging them to be raised by other people.

Huerta also said Chavez abused her emotionally. During a board meeting, he had suggested that Huerta stole money from the organization. She pushed back, and Chavez called her a “stupid b*tch.”

The civil rights icon said she struggled with a dual identity she had assigned to Chavez — one version of him as the abuser, and another as a civil rights leader. She broke down when told by The Times about his abuse of other girls. “It’s kind of like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation I think,” she said.

The Times investigation found Chavez also sexually abused then-girls Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas in the ’70s. Both women, now 66, said the encounters traumatized them and lead them to develop mental health disorders.

As a result of the allegations, the United Farm Workers union said they would not participate in activities on his birthday March 31, and called the accusations “troubling.”

Chavez died in 1993 at age 66.

Huerta suggested the allegations will tarnish Chavez’s legacy.

“Unfortunately, he used some of his great leadership to abuse women and children — it’s really awful,” she said.

Here’s Huerta’s full statement:

I am nearly 96 years old, and for the last 60 years have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.

I have encouraged people to always use their voice. Following the New York Times’ multi-year investigation into sexual misconduct by Cesar Chavez, I can no longer stay silent and must share my own experiences.

As a young mother in the 1960s, I experienced two separate sexual encounters with Cesar. The first time I was manipulated and pressured into having sex with him, and 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. The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.

I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret. Both sexual encounters with Cesar led to pregnancies. I chose to keep my pregnancies secret and, after the children were born, I arranged for them to be raised by other families that could give them stable lives.

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. But even then, no one knew the full truth about how they were conceived until just a few weeks ago.

I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and 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.

I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor — of violence, of sexual abuse, of domineering men who saw me, and other women, as property, or things to control.

I am telling my story because the New York Times has indicated that I was not the only one — there were others. Women are coming forward, sharing that they were sexually abused and assaulted by Cesar when they were girls and teenagers.

The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did. Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.

The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. Cesar’s actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people. We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever.

I will continue my commitments to workers, as well as my commitment to women’s rights, to make sure we have a voice and that our communities are treated with dignity and given the equity that they have so long been denied.

I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here.

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