Dolores Huerta opens up about Cesar Chavez abuse allegations
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Cesar Chavez became the face of Latino civil and labor rights in the media and in history books, but scholars and activists are asking why "a community is only allowed to have one figure."
Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, says the union wants to help support victims who have come forward to report sexual abuse by Cesar Chavez.
Dolores Huerta, a civil rights icon who founded United Farm Workers with César Chávez in the 1960s, revealed more personal details Thursday about her allegations of sex assaults by Chávez and explained why she stayed silents for decades.
A New York Times investigation published in March 2026 accused the civil rights icon of sexually abusing young girls.
If even the Governor is stepping back from recognizing Cesar Chavez this year, then the Legislature needs to finish the job. Looking the other way is not leadership.”
Allegations that the man long hailed as a civil rights icon and labor movement pioneer sexually abused minors and women have forced a reckoning over spaces that bear his name.
One-on-one interview with Latino civil rights and labor leader César Chávez, talking about a protest in 1989 at Safeway headquarters in Oakland, Calif. (Sept. 20, 1989)