As the labor community reels from allegations disclosed in a New York Times investigation that César Chávez sexually assaulted multiple women and young girls, Dolores Huerta has revealed that she was among those victimized by the civil and labor rights leader.
Huerta, who grew up in Stockton, California, and co-founded the organization that became the United Farmworkers Union alongside Chávez and Gilbert Padilla, detailed her own experiences. In a statement posted to her verified Instagram and Medium blog on Wednesday, she said that Chávez raped her twice.
“As a young mother in the 1960s, I experienced two separate sexual encounters with Cesar,” she said in the statement. “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.”
Both assaults led to pregnancies that she kept to term, Huerta said, adding that she arranged to have the children 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. But even then, no one knew the full truth about how they were conceived until just a few weeks ago,” Huerta added.
She said that she had been sexually abused and victimized before, but that she thought they were simply acts that she had to endure in silence, for the good of the farm labor movement.
What changed, she said, was the investigation revealing that her own assaults did not take place in a vacuum: There were at least two other victims.
“The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me,” Huerta said. “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.”
Celebrations of Chávez’s life’s work have been canceled across the country in light of Huerta’s allegations and the accusations of at least two other women, who say that Chávez sexually assaulted them for years during the 1970s, beginning when they were 12 or 13 and he was in his 40s.
