Cesar Chavez raped girls, fellow labor icon Dolores Huerta, newspaper investigation says

The newspaper interviewed two woman who said they were raped by Chavez —one repeatedly — when they were children.

“Both women have struggled with depression, panic attacks and substance abuse in the years since. They maintained their silence for decades, fearing speaking out would tarnish Mr. Chavez’s legacy, but decided in recent months, after being approached by reporters, that their stories also counted,” The Times reported.

Huerta told the paper she was raped by Chavez in 1966.

“Mr. Chavez drove her out to a secluded grape field in Delano, Calif., parked and forced her to have sex inside the vehicle. She 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,” The Times reported.

The newspaper’s investigation found Chavez fathered four children out of wedlock with three other women and that there had been “whispers within the movement” for decades about his conduct.

The Times investigation reported that a handful of Chavez’s relatives and former farm worker leaders have been aware of allegations of sexual misconduct for years but found no evidence that they made any efforts to investigate the accusations against him or acknowledge the victims.

The revelations come a day after the United Farm Workers said it would not participate in celebrations of Chavez due to “troubling allegations” against him.

The claims against Chavez “are incompatible with our organization’s values. Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on. Far more troubling are allegations involving abuse of young women or minors. Allegations that very young women or girls may have been victimized are crushing. We have not received any direct reports, and we do not have any firsthand knowledge of these allegations,” the union said.

Tuesday morning, the Cesar Chavez Foundation said in a statement that it had “become aware of disturbing allegations that Cesar Chavez engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with women and minors during his time as President of the United Farm Workers of America.”

The foundation said it was working with leaders in the farmworker movement to be responsive to these allegations and support the people who might have been harmed.

Bursting into national prominence in the mid-1960s in the San Joaquin Valley, Chavez galvanized public support on behalf of them after organizing community groups across Central and Southern California. For decades, agricultural laborers had lived in substandard housing and were paid terrible wages. Efforts to organize migrant laborers were usually crushed violently by farmers and local law enforcement.

But Chavez’s legacy became increasingly tarnished as the years went on. Labor victories became fewer and fewer. His fierce criticism of illegal immigration — Chavez argued that they undercut his unionization efforts — put him at odds with immigration activists. A 2006 Times investigation detailed how dozens of former associates and workers left the UFW because of what they described as Chavez’s increasingly autocratic ways.