March 18 (Reuters) – Civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Cesar Chavez and fought alongside him to advance U.S. labor rights, on Wednesday accused Chavez of sexually assaulting her in the 1960s.
Huerta said in a statement that she was sharing her story in light of a multi-year New York Times investigation, also published on Wednesday. It detailed a larger pattern of sexual misconduct allegations against Chavez, who died in 1993 at the age of 66, including testimonies by women who said he molested and raped them when they were minors.
Huerta said she had two sexual encounters with Chavez in the 1960s. The first time, she was “manipulated and pressured” into having sex with him and “didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement.”
The second time, Huerta said, she was forced to have sex with him “against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.” Both encounters resulted in pregnancies that Huerta chose to keep secret, arranging for the children to be raised by other families.
“I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for,” said Huerta, 96, in the statement, explaining why she had not publicly spoken of what happened earlier. “Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.”
The Chavez family did not dispute the allegations and said it was devastated by the New York Times article.
“We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward,” the Chavez family said in a statement that referred to Chavez as “our father.”
The statement was published on social media by the National Chavez Center, which is dedicated to preserving his legacy and run by Andres Chavez, one of his grandchildren.
“We carry our own memories of the person we knew. Someone whose life included work and contributions that matter deeply to many people,” the Chavez family said.
The accusations detailed in the Times investigation have prompted the UFW to cancel planned celebrations of Chavez and some cities to cancel or rename activities that had been organized in honor of the labor organizer. March 31, his birthday, is a federal commemorative holiday, marked in several states with marches, service projects and educational programs.
The Cesar Chavez Foundation, which preserves memorials including his California gravesite, said it would work with the UFW to help those who may have been harmed by Chavez to share their experiences and seek support.
Prominent U.S. Latino groups swiftly condemned Chavez on Wednesday. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus said in a statement it would support “renaming streets, post offices, vessels, and holidays that bear Chávez’ name to instead honor our community and the farmworkers whose struggle defined the movement.” Local leaders moved to erase his name from streets and other sites.
Voto Latino, a Latino voter advocacy group, said in a statement that Chavez’ “heinous actions cannot and must not erase the work of the thousands of women, men, and families who built the farmworker movement.”
Chavez gained international prominence with boycotts and fasts for higher wages and better conditions for migrant workers who picked grapes and performed other agricultural labor.
Huerta handled negotiating with growers, lobbying legislators and other business for the UFW during its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s in California’s Central Valley farming region.
She continued her activism in her later years, canvassing door-to-door to get out the vote into her 90s.
She suffered broken ribs and a damaged spleen when beaten by baton-wielding San Francisco police in a 1988 protest against the policies of George H.W. Bush during his presidential campaign. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
(Reporting by Julia Harte and Maria Tsvetkova; editing by Donna Bryson, Rosalba O’Brien and Cynthia Osterman)
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