NEW YORK, NY (Kerry Breen, CBS) — Labor leader Dolores Huerta appeared to corroborate allegations of abuse against young women or minors by the late Cesar Chavez on Wednesday, writing in a statement that she had two non-consensual “sexual encounters” with him that ended in pregnancy.
The allegations of abuse by Chavez, himself a union and civil rights leader, were first reported by the New York Times on Wednesday morning. Chavez and Huerta were co-founders of the National Farm Workers Association in the 1960s. The group later became the United Farm Workers union, which still represents nearly 5,000 farm workers. Chavez died in 1993. Huerta remains active in politics.
Huerta, 95, wrote that she kept the assaults secret because she “believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.” The investigation and the allegations shared within it inspired her to share her experiences, she said.
“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to achieve and secure those rights and I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way,” Huerta wrote. “I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farmworkers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights.”
Huerta said that she was “manipulated and pressured into having sex” with Chavez, and felt she could not 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 wrote. “I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret.”
Huerta did not specify when the encounters occurred, except to describe herself as a “young mother in the 1960s,” when she would have been in her 30s.
Huerta said both instances led to pregnancies, which she carried and delivered in secret. She “arranged for (the children) to be raised by other families that could give them stable lives” after they were born, she said. Huerta said that she has developed a relationship with those children, but that “no one knew the full truth about how they were conceived until just a few weeks ago.”
Huerta said that the allegations against Chavez sicken her and that her “heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years.” She also wrote that “there are no words strong enough to condemn” Chavez’s “deplorable actions.”
“I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor — of violence, of sexual abuse, of domineering men who saw me, and other women, as property, or things to control. … I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here.”
Huerta said that the allegations against Chavez “do not reflect the values of our community and our movement” and said that she believed the “farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual.” The Dolores Huerta Foundation website includes resources for sexual assault survivors.
In a statement released Wednesday by Chavez’s family, they said they were “devastated” by the New York Times article, describing the revelations as “deeply painful.”
“We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward,” the statement read. “As a family steeped in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse. We carry our own memories of the person we knew. Someone whose life included work and contributions that matter deeply to many people.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on social media that he and California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom “have the backs of these survivors,” adding that “the farm workers movement and a labor movement are much bigger than one man.”
Newsom wrote that he and his wife “stand with the courageous women, like Dolores Huerta, who have stepped forward after decades of concealing pain and abuse. We’re for justice. We’re for truth. We’re for transparency.”
The UFW said that it is distancing itself from Chavez, and abstaining from participating in Cesar Chavez Day activities, which celebrate his birthday. It is a formal holiday in California, Utah, Arizona and Washington. The union called the allegations against him “crushing,” CBS Sacramento reported.
The Cesar Chavez Foundation said that it is “deeply shocked and saddened” by the allegations, and working with the UFW to respond.
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