Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years

That’s a lot of streets that might have to be renamed….

Posting Dolores Huerta (a co-founder of UFW along with Caesar Chavez)'s statement today: March 18, 2026 Today, civil rights leader Dolores Huerta issued the following 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." If you are a survivor or if you have been impacted by any type of sexual violence, please visit the Dolores Huerta Foundation website, where you will find a list of resources for support.

My company, about to put out an education product featuring Chavez: 🫥

> His most prominent female ally in the movement, Dolores Huerta, said in an interview that he sexually assaulted her, a disclosure she has never before made publicly. - > Ms. Huerta, who was 36 at the time, 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. Dolores Huerta is the creator of "Sí, se puede" btw. When someone as powerful as her feels powerless to do something about her abuser, you know the problem runs deep. So many women and literal children victimized, horrible. But to be clear, only stupid people would allow the actions of a single evil man to diminish something as important as the civil rights movement.

Growing up as an American of Mexican descent in California, I knew how Chavez was character wise thanks to my family. I was always puzzled how he achieved icon status, especially with how his personal views on immigration were. Needless to say, these new “allegations” don’t surprise me in the least bit.

[Non-paywall link](https://archive.ph/2026.03.18-163907/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html) > Ana Murguia remembers the day the man she had regarded as a hero called her house and summoned her to see him. She walked along a dirt trail, entered the rundown building, passed his secretary and stepped into his office. > He locked the door, as he always did when he called her, and told her how lonely he had been. He brought her onto the yoga mat that he often used in his office for meditation, kissed her and pulled her pants down. “Don’t tell anyone,” he told her afterward. “They’d get jealous.” > The man, Cesar Chavez, one of the most revered figures in the Latino civil rights movement, was 45. She was 13. Ms. Murguia said she was summoned for sexual encounters with him dozens of times over the next four years. Recently, more than 50 years later, Ms. Murguia learned that a street near her home in the Central California city of Bakersfield was in the process of being renamed. City officials want to name it in honor of her abuser. > Ms. Murguia and another woman, Debra Rojas, say that Mr. Chavez sexually abused them for years when they were girls, from around 1972 to 1977. He was in his 40s and had become a powerful, charismatic figure who captured global attention as a champion of farmworker rights. The two women have not shared their stories publicly before, and an investigation by The New York Times has uncovered extensive evidence to support their accusations and those raised by several other women against Mr. Chavez, the United Farm Workers co-founder who died in 1993 at the age of 66. > The questions raised by The Times about Mr. Chavez, one of the most consequential figures in Mexican American history, set off immediate reverberations and alarmed and disturbed his allies. Even before this article was published, upon learning of the reporters’ inquiries, the U.F.W. canceled its annual celebrations honoring Mr. Chavez, a response to what the union he once led called “profoundly shocking” accusations. > Ms. Murguia and Ms. Rojas, both of whom are now 66, were the daughters of longtime organizers who had marched in rallies alongside Mr. Chavez. He used the privacy of his California office to frequently molest Ms. Murguia, she said. He had known her since she was 8 years old. She became so traumatized that she attempted to end her life multiple times by the age of 15. > “I wanted to die,” she said. > Ms. Rojas said she was 12 when Mr. Chavez first touched her inappropriately, groping her breasts in the same office where he’d meet with Ms. Murguia. When Ms. Rojas was 15, he arranged to have her stay at a motel during a weekslong march through California, she said, and had sexual intercourse with her — r***, under state law, because she was not old enough to consent. (Ms. Murguia said Mr. Chavez molested her but never had intercourse with her.). > The abuse allegations appear to be part of a larger pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Chavez, much of which has never been publicly revealed. The Times investigation found that Mr. Chavez also used many of the women who worked and volunteered in his movement for his own sexual gratification. His most prominent female ally in the movement, Dolores Huerta, said in an interview that he sexually assaulted her, a disclosure she has never before made publicly. > Many of the women stayed silent for decades, both out of shame and for fear of tarnishing the image of a man who has become the face of the Latino civil rights movement, his image on school murals and his birthday a state holiday in California. > The findings are based on interviews with more than 60 people, including his top aides at the time, his relatives and former members of the U.F.W., which he co-founded with Ms. Huerta and Gilbert Padilla. The Times reviewed hundreds of pages of union records, confidential emails and photographs, as well as hours of audio recordings from U.F.W. board meetings. > The accounts of abuse from Ms. Murguia and Ms. Rojas were independently verified through interviews with those they confided in decades ago and in more recent years. Elements of their stories were also corroborated in documents, emails, itineraries and other writings from union organizers, supporters of Mr. Chavez and historians.

Here’s the problem when you venerate a human. That’s why I don’t to get to wrapped up in the personal life of musicians, it might ruin the music for me *Edit: to the folks blasting me, of course I’m not talking about vile human beings that are predators. I’m talking artists that are just jerks in real life, I’d rather not know and still appreciate their art. But guys like Roman Polanski, R. Kelly, Bill Cosby, yeah, I’ll never support their art.*

It's almost like we should stop deifying people overall.

This is something that’s floated around for years. Everyone in California knows he was an a****** to lots of people in the movement. He was a very complicated figure.

Ah, so the news *can* cover a war and a sex scandal at the same time after all.

Austin just canceled the Cesar Chavez parade because of this. I didn't even know we had a Cesar Chavez parade.

California also has a paid state holiday named after him that seems problematic now.

A man in power, abusing that to get sex? Color me shocked.

There's someone else who's been accused of abusing girls for years that we can still go after.

Growing up in Los Angeles as a Mexican-American, this was widely known. My parents and even grandparents would tell me he was a POS. The rumors have always been there. I'm just surprised it took this long for something to happen.

I know someone who worked directly with Chavez during the mid 1960’s. He told me that Chavez descended into full on mental illness by the early 1970’s and the people who supported him and built up the Union during the 1960’s simply left and let him run it into the ground. He told me that Chavez was a “driven genius”, but like all driven geniuses, he was always a little “crazy” and people tended to overlook those issues out respect and belief that the organization wouldn’t work without him. My friend is very reluctant to say anything bad about Chavez but he suggested that things happened that he and other high level leaders had to “cover up” to protect the reputation of Chavez and the Union. He would have been there during the time of the incident with Dolores Huerta but he wasn’t there when the incidents with underage girls occurred.

not surprised. many men of power abuse it in all the ways, including with women.

Powerful men abusing girls and women should face the law and be punished. Or elected president, either or.

I propose we rename the streets, schools etc after Dolores Huerta as to not lose sight of the movement itself. Chavez is a POS we know that and those of us who read and dig already knew that long before this moment. But the movement can't be lost, the history can't be diminished based on one individuals actions. The battle, blood, sweat and tears of the thousands of workers must remain in tact.

The words “icon and hero” are thrown around so much that they lose their meaning. He could have been a civil rights icon and a shit human at the same time. Why do we automatically assume that they are mutually exclusive.

FFS, who _isn't_ a sex abuser??? I'm so sick if this. Even MLK was a notorious sex pest. Do we just have to assume that everyone is awful now? :( Seriously fellow men, how f****** hard is it not to r*** people?

Frankly, I’m shocked when powerful men *don’t* commit sex crimes. Seems to go hand in hand.

I had the absolute privilege of meeting Ms. Huerta when I was in high school. She was that rare, genuine icon of progressive and radical beliefs that helped push me towards the understanding of society that I have today. She was also supportive and understanding to a young, awkward, closeted queer kid who didn’t know the right words for their identity, in a way many adults have never been. She is, in short, an absolute inspiration to me, even beyond her many public achievements. If she says this happened, it happened. I have zero doubt about that. It is devastating to me that a person like her was hurt by a man like Chavez—like a physical punch to the gut. That alone would be a tragedy. But knowing now that all of these young girls with even less power have been forced to bury their suffering deep for decades, too, is beyond the pale. They were doing good in the farmworkers movement. It should have done right by them. The roots of the Epstein class have always gone deep, clearly, and need to be extracted. Permanently. Si se puede.

Anyone got a paywall free link to the NYT article?

Wait until yall hear about what past and current presidents got up to.

Homer Simpson devastated with this news about Cesar Romero

My guess is that Cesar Chavez- a guy that has been dead for nearly 33 years- will face more consequences for raping children than the current President of the United States.

Honestly, more and more it just seems like virtually anyone with any influence and power is doing shitty things behind the scenes.

Why do all powerful men turn out to be assholes

No Gods, No Masters, No Icons

Ok so not ALL men but so so so many are disgusting predators. I’m sending so much love and support to ALL women except for the women excusing this. 

Devastating to read this about an icon. 😢Glad the truth is being told.

Well, definitely a deal breaker for me. I won’t be voting for him for any high office unless he is cleared. That’s what makes me different than roughly 75,000,000 of my fellow Americans apparently.

I just assume anyone who lived through black and white media times did something that goes against the values that I hold now - until proven otherwise.

It’s starting to feel more and more that if someone reaches prominence in society, it’s best to start from the assumption that they’re into abusing kids. If not then, then at *least* an adulterer. Seems almost universal.

isn't it funny how these people are instantly brought down yet agent orange just keeps on passing wind?

Just throw it on the pile.

Let me guess, MAGA will believe every accusation without question. But their dear leader is innocent of everything, no need to even investigate. To be clear, I believe they both assaulted and raped women.

Does this mean San Francisco will get Army St back?

A man of power is accused of abusing children, I am in shock and disbelief

OH FFS! Can't we have one non-pedo hero!?

These comments are gross as Hell. How f****** single-minded do we have to be that this is being dismissed with, “WHAT ABOUT EPSTEIN AND TRUMP!” and not, “it’s good a predator is being exposed”? Yeah, he’s dead. That hasn’t stopped people ‘cancelling’ folks like, shit, Paul Gauguin for being predatory creeps. I grew up in California with peers whose families were working the vineyards and fields and even 30 years ago they were talking about this. It’s news, but it isn’t *news*. I thought our modern cultural narrative is to Believe Women…does that not count if those women are “brown” accusing another “brown”? Frankly the Whataboutism here comes across as hella racist. Believe Women, except if they say something against a beloved icon. Then, f*** ‘em, it’s right-wing propaganda.

Wait until you hear about Thomas Jefferson.

No surprise a man in power doing something heinous. Separate the man from the movement. Society needs to stop idolizing people and praise the ideas etc.

I used to be like “oh wow, how disappointing” and now I’m just waiting for abuse allegations to come to light for historic figures. Or anyone really. I’m assuming this was prevalent.

I am Mexican. I grew up being skeptical about this man. I get that the Latino community needed their political and righteous hero. But something about him didn't sit right the more I knew about him through books. He was very coercive and manipulative in testimonies from other political figures. Where some saw him as an unwavering figure, he really liked to have power and abuse it. He was anti immigrant despite being a product of immigrants. He also ran scams and a migrant farmer periodical. He used catholicism as it was his upbringing to secularize his movement and famously looked down on poor people, having grown poor himself. He used other prominent leaders tactics an used them to serve his own purpose. He was smart yet conniving.