Dolores Huerta Speaks Out on Alleged Abuse by Cesar Chavez
“My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers, foreground, speaks during a campaign event on Proposition 50 in San Francisco, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) Credit: Associated Press
Trigger Warning: This article contains references to sexual abuse and assault.
Labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta has spoken out against fellow farmworker organizer Cesar Chavez, accusing him of sexual abuse and breaking what she described as a silence she kept for decades to protect the movement they helped build. In a statement published Wednesday, Huerta wrote, “For the last 60 years, I have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”
Huerta said she experienced “two separate sexual encounters” with Chavez. She said the first time she was “manipulated and pressured into having sex with him,” and the second time she was “forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.
Her statement came after reports surfaced accusing Chavez of abusing young women and girls tied to the farmworker movement. According to the Associated Press, the United Farm Workers and the Cesar Chavez Foundation called the allegations “profoundly shocking” and said they would suspend or step back from celebrations honoring Chavez while supporting survivors and reviewing next steps.
“The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me,” Huerta said in her statement. “My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years.” The revelations have sparked a broader reckoning around Chavez’s legacy within labor and Latino civil rights history.
