Left turns on Cesar Chavez after horrific allegations of rape, sexual abuse

Governors in Texas and Arizona said Wednesday they are canceling their state celebrations of Cesar Chavez Day, and communities across the west were looking to follow suit after stunning new allegations that the late Hispanic civil rights hero groomed and raped women — including young girls — who volunteered for his movement.

The reports were bolstered by a shocking revelation from Dolores Huerta, who co-founded United Farm Workers with Chavez, and who revealed she was forced into sexual encounters with him in the 1960s, as an adult. She said both encounters led to pregnancies and babies she arranged to be raised by other families.

“The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did,” she said in a statement posted online. “Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.”

She said she came forward after decades because of a New York Times investigation that revealed the abuse of underage girls.

The idolizing legend surrounding Chavez, who died in 1993 at age 66, had grown along with the political power of Hispanics, to the point that President Biden put his bust in a place of honor in the Oval Office.

This week’s revelations erased all of that.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced their states would no longer celebrate Cesar Chavez Day on March 31.

Mr. Abbott said he will also ask his legislature to formally revoke the day in state law.

“Reports of the horrific and widely acknowledged sexual assault allegations against Cesar Chavez rightfully dismantle the myth of this progressive hero and undermine the narrative that elevated Chavez as a figure worthy of official state celebration,” he said.

In California, where Cesar Chavez Day is written into law as an official state holiday, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said he and his wife were close with Ms. Huerta and “none of us knew, and we are all processing this.”

“The farm workers movement and a labor movement are much bigger than one man — and we celebrate that and that will be our focus as we process what the next steps are,” he said.

For Chavez, who died in 1993 and has been lionized in the decades since for his efforts on behalf of American Hispanics, the reaction was severe.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fernandez called for “facing painful truths.”

“Survivors carried this pain in silence for years. We owe them our support; we must hear them and believe them,” she said.

United Farm Workers, Chavez’s organization, said Tuesday it would drop out of Chavez Day observations, calling the allegations “crushing.”

“We have not received any direct reports, and we do not have any firsthand knowledge of these allegations,” said the UFW statement. “However, the allegations are serious enough that we feel compelled to take urgent steps to learn more and provide space for people who may have been victimized to find support and to share their stories if that is what they choose.”

The Cesar Chavez Foundation said it was working with UFW to set up a process for victims to report the abuse.

The New York Times named two women who said they were abused by Chavez when they were teens in the 1970s. Ana Murguia came forward after her hometown, Bakersfield, was planning to name a street after Chavez.

She told the newspaper that Chavez molested her, but never had intercourse with her.

Debra Rojas said she was 12 when Chavez first groped her. He raped her when she was 15.

Chavez was in his 40s at the time.

The newspaper said the two women were “part of a larger pattern of sexual misconduct” that saw him use “many of the women who worked for him and volunteered in his movement for his own sexual gratification.”

Ms. Huerta’s revelations were particularly painful for many Democrats who have considered her both a political ally and a close friend over the decades, and who were shocked at what she said she had to endure.

Ms. Huerta, in her public statement, said she hid Chavez’s sexual activities and her own children “because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work.”

“The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights, and I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farmworkers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights,” she said.

She said she came forward because The New York Times’ investigation made clear “I was not the only one.”

Chavez, who was married to his wife Helen throughout the time period of the allegations, was controversial in life.

His efforts to empower and unionize the largely Mexican farmworker population were celebrated by the left, but derided by critics on the right as advancing socialism.

After his death, however, he had been largely lionized.

California Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, signed a law in 2000 declaring March 31 a state holiday in honor of Chavez.

President Obama, seeking to deepen ties to Hispanic voters, declared a Cesar Chavez commemorative day and, in 2012, created the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument, adding Chavez’s home to the National Park Service system. During the announcement, Mr. Obama laid a rose at Chavez’s grave.

The Washington Times has sought comment from Mr. Obama’s office for this story.