The late Cesar Chavez, one of the nation's most prominent civil 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.
Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta said in a statement that Chavez, her co-founder of what became the United Farm Workers, coerced into having sex with him once and, on another occasion, she was raped.
“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,” Huerta said in a statement published online. “The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.”
Huerta first revealed her allegations of the 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 U.F.W. board meetings.
Chavez, who was Mexican American, is one of the most celebrated and recognized Latinos in modern U.S. history and an inspiration to generations who credit his work with inspiring their own activism and causes. He died in 1993.
The news has generated profound reverberations in the Mexican American and Latino communities, and many consider Chavez to be a civil rights hero. He has been honored at the highest levels of government, many streets are named for him, and he is a symbol of the longtime struggle for equality for Mexican Americans, the largest Latino group in the U.S., as well as for farmworkers.
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.
“We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward. 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," the family stated. “We carry our own memories of the person we knew. Someone whose life included work and contributions that matter deeply to many people." The family said it remains "committed to farmworkers and the causes he and countless others championed and continue to champion."
The family asked for privacy and understanding.
Eliseo Medina was a longtime member and leader in the farmworker union who helped organize boycotts and strikes and served on the United Farm Workers board from 1973 to 1978. Medina, now retired, met Chavez in 1965 and had a long friendship with him. Medina was once considered likely to take the reigns of the movement after Chavez, but he left the union over disagreement on its direction.
Medina told NBC News that the allegations are “a real shock” that left him very sad for what the women and their families went through. He said he is confused and angry "because all those years we worked together and the things we shared, the values and what we were fighting for, it just seems he didn't believe in those things or somehow separated those from what he was doing as union leader.”
“The man I thought he was, was someone else,” said Medina, who went on to become a top official in the Service Employees International Union and a leader on immigrant rights.
He said he did not know the girls who alleged the sexual abuse in the New York Times story, but knew their parents. He said one had died and his wife had reached out to the mother of the other.
Delia Garcia, a former Kansas state labor secretary who said she has been mentored by Huerta for 26 years, broke down in tears when reached Wednesday for comment. In a followup call, she said her family has pictures of Chavez and Huerta throughout their home. Chavez's photos will be coming down, she said.
She said she “stands with Dolores” and the other survivors of Chavez's alleged abuse, whom she said she does not know.
“This is another reason why we can't let people suffer in silence, whether it's farmworkers or survivors of abuse,” she said.
Huerta said she was a young mother in the 1960s at the time of Chavez's sexual assault.
Now 96, Huerta said in her statement that she kept it “a secret” because “I believed exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.
The Times reported it could not corroborate Huerta's allegations.
Huerta's statement comes a day after several communities canceled Cesar Chavez Day activities in anticipation of the allegations becoming widely public.
Civil rights marches regularly take place on March 31, which President Barack Obama in 2014 designated as Cesar Chavez Day and falls on Chavez’s birthday.
The Cesar Chavez Foundation said in a statement Tuesday it had become aware of “very troubling allegations.” The UFW warned that “very young women or girls may have been victimized.”
Huerta said both sexual encounters led to pregnancies, which she kept secret. Two children were born and Huerta arranged for them to be raised by other families “who could give them stable lives,” she stated.
“The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years,” Huerta said.
Huerta did not respond to NBC News' requests for comment. Her spokesperson provided the statement.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Seibel Newsom, said they have been friends with Huerta for decades and never had an inkling she endured sexual abuse.
During a news conference about youth financial literacy, Newsom said the revelations mark a moment of deep reflection and reckoning in a state where some three dozen schools are named after Chavez. Cesar Chavez Day is also recognized as a state holiday.
“We’re going to have to reflect on a labor movement that was much bigger than one man and celebrate that,” Newsom said when asked about renaming streets, schools and other tributes to Chavez across the state.
“That will be our focus as we process what the next steps are.”
Seibel Newsom nearly broke down in tears when discussing the troubling accusations. A survivor of sexual assault, she testified in 2002 against former Hollywood producer and convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein.
She told reporters that she was still “shaking about Dolores and all these young women.”
“We’re living in really tough times and, you know, this war on women is not new,” she said. “Enough is enough. It’s got to end. It’s got to end in my lifetime.”
