The late Cesar Chavez, one of the nation's most prominent labor rights leaders, has been accused of sexually abusing girls and women in the 1960s and 1970s, when he was at the forefront of a movement to improve farmworkers' rights.
According to NBC News, Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta in an explosive statement said that Chavez, her co-founder of what became the United Farm Workers, coerced her into having sex with him once and, on another occasion, she was raped.
Huerta said in a statement published online, “The first time I was manipulated and pressured into having sex with him, and I didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to. The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.”
Huerta first revealed her claims of sexual assault to The New York Times, which published an investigation Wednesday of allegations by her and two other women, who said they were 12 and 13 when Chavez first sexually molested them.
The newspaper said it relied on interviews with more than 60 people, including former top aides, relatives and former members of the United Farm Workers. It also combed union records, confidential emails, photographs and recordings of UFW board meetings.
The news has generated profound reverberations in the Mexican American and Latino communities.
In an initial statement, the Chavez family said it was "shocked and saddened" by the news that Chavez had "engaged in sexual impropriety with women and minors nearly 50 years ago."
The family updated the statement Wednesday afternoon, saying the news was “deeply painful for our family" and repeating some of its earlier statement.
