Blog Details

A Original York Times investigation has printed allegations that the slack principal labor leader Cesar Chavez abused ladies and raped Dolores Huerta, his longtime organizing accomplice.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

The legacy of a revered civil rights leader is in quiz amid allegations that he sexually abused ladies and females. Cesar Chavez, the slack cofounder of the United Farm Workers union, became a champion for farmworkers and helped overhaul labor rules. But a Original York Times investigation out this day finds Chavez’s alleged history of sexual assault. For added, we’re joined by NPR’s Adrian Florido. Hey there, Adrian.

ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.

KELLY: Hi. Train me extra about these accusations in opposition to Chavez, laid out by The Original York Times.

FLORIDO: Smartly, two females who spoke with The Times instructed the paper that Chavez began sexually abusing them within the Seventies, as soon as they were 12- and 13-years-dilapidated. Debra Rojas and Ana Murguia were every daughters of organizers at some level of the United Farm Workers. Chavez became in his 40s and became the union’s president. And even handed among the females, Rojas, acknowledged that at some level of a now principal UFW march across California, Chavez raped her in a motel room when she became 15.

The paper also reported but any other lovely allegation from Dolores Huerta, who cofounded the United Farm Workers with Chavez and became his longtime organizing accomplice and remains to be an icon within the labor movement. Now, she instructed The Times that on one occasion, Chavez pressured her into having sex with him, and that on but any other in 1966, he raped her in a automobile. She obtained pregnant from every encounters, she acknowledged, and arranged for the young of us to be raised by other households.

KELLY: It is excessive, Adrian, we desire to existing, NPR has no longer independently investigated these allegations. The Times, when it did, they insist they spoke with extra than 60 of us. They reviewed paperwork. They reviewed a lot of union provides to take a eye at to corroborate these allegations. The fallout has been truly fleet and swift. How are…

FLORIDO: Yeah.

KELLY: …Folks at some level of the union movement reacting?

FLORIDO: Smartly, the fallout began even sooner than this investigation became published this day. The day gone by, the Cesar Chavez Foundation, which promotes his legacy, issued a preemptive commentary asserting it had turn into conscious of, quote, “disturbing allegations” and that it became scared and saddened. Now, the United Farm Workers also issued a commentary the day long gone by acknowledging the allegations. It acknowledged it desired to work to support victims of Chavez’s alleged abuse, and it canceled events it had scheduled for Cesar Chavez Day on March 31. That’s a reveal holiday right here in California. Chavez celebrations in other states hold also been canceled or renamed.

KELLY: The – Dolores Huerta, she’s by no methodology publicly shared the allegation that Chavez raped her. How does this all recast the study of their partnership?

FLORIDO: Smartly, right here’s ground engrossing. Chavez died in 1993, and he’s long been a hero of the labor movement and of the Mexican American neighborhood, Mary Louise. Huerta has continually spoken highly of him, however she issued a commentary this day asserting, quote, “I am nearly 96 years old and, for the last 60 years, have kept this secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”

These revelations are going to upend no longer finest the study of their partnership, however also Chavez’s situation as a hero of labor and of Mexican People. I’m already seeing on-line calls for murals of him to be painted over and for faculties and streets and neighborhood companies and products named after him to be renamed for Huerta.

KELLY: NPR’s Adrian Florido, thanks.

FLORIDO: Thanks, Mary Louise.

Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Search the recommendation of with our net net page terms of spend and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further records.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts would possibly presumably vary. Transcript textual issue material is in all probability revised to just errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org is in all probability edited after its normal broadcast or newsletter. The authoritative portray of NPR’s programming is the audio portray.