Cesar Chavez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America, thinks about an interviewer’s question during a visit to Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., on April 14, 1993. 

More than 30 years after his death, new allegations of sexual abuse against labor leader Cesar Chavez are triggering fallout across California, including the cancellation of planned celebrations in his honor. Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers and led national boycotts and labor campaigns, remains a central figure in Latino civil rights history. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, and his birthday was declared a U.S. federal commemorative holiday in 2014.

Dolores Huerta, Chavez’s longtime ally and a co-founder of the United Farm Workers, disclosed in a new report from the New York Times that Chavez sexually assaulted her in 1966, an allegation she said she had never previously disclosed publicly. “Unfortunately, he used some of his great leadership to abuse women and children — it’s really awful,” Huerta told the outlet. 

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Erik Olvera, a spokesperson for Dolores Huerta, confirmed the outlet’s report with regard to Huerta’s story. 

“This is a very heavy day and we are all shocked and all surprised,” he told SFGATE. “Dolores, she legitimately had no idea and thought she was the only one.”

Dolores Huerta, far right, poses for a group portrait with the National Executive Board of the United Farm Workers in California, circa 1975. Standing from left to right: Marshall Ganz, Philip Vera Cruz, Richard Chavez and Pete Velasco. Sitting from left to right: Mack Lyons, Cesar Chavez, Gilbert Padilla, Eliseo Medina and Dolores Huerta.

 Dolores Huerta, an American labor activist and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, speaks on stage during a UFW rally in California, circa 1975 or 1976.

In addition to Huerta, two women, Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, told the New York Times that Chavez abused them repeatedly as minors in the 1970s. At the time, he was in his 40s and leading the farmworkers movement. Murguia said she was 13 when Chavez first summoned her to his office, where he locked the door, assaulted her and warned her not to tell anyone. She said the encounters continued for years.

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Don't let Google decide who you trust.

Rojas said in the report that Chavez first groped her when she was 12 and later had sexual intercourse with her when she was 15 in a motel during a union march. Under California law, the conduct would constitute rape due to her age. Both women said they had not previously shared their accounts publicly.

The allegations were part of a broader investigation by the Times, which reported interviews with more than 60 people and a review of union records, emails, photographs and audio recordings. The reporting found what it described as a pattern of misconduct, including claims that Chavez used women within the movement “for his own sexual gratification.”

In a statement on Tuesday before the New York Times report was released, the United Farm Workers said it would not participate in events marking Chavez’s birthday on March 31, citing “deeply troubling allegations” and reports that are “incompatible with our organization’s values.” The union said it had “not received any direct reports” and had no “firsthand knowledge” of the claims but called the allegations involving “very young women or girls” “crushing.”

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Cesar Chavez leads a supermarket protest. 

Cesar Chavez, the organizer and leader of the National Farm Workers Association, appears at a union rally. Chavez successfully called for a nationwide boycott of non-union picked grapes.

The organization said it plans to create an “external, confidential, independent channel” for people to share experiences and seek support, adding that the accusations were “profoundly shocking.”

The Cesar Chavez Foundation also released a statement on Tuesday saying it was “shocked and saddened” by the allegations. 

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The foundations said it plans to “support the people who may have been harmed by his actions, and ensure we are united and guided by our commitment to justice and community empowerment.” 

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