A new report from the New York Times has revealed allegations of sexual misconduct against the late civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, including claims of rape and sexual abuse of minors. Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) and died in 1993, is accused of sexually harassing and assaulting women within his movement, as well as abusing the daughters of UFW organizers.
Two women, Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, both now 66, say they were repeatedly molested by Chavez more than 50 years ago, starting when they were 12 and 13 years old. Rojas alleges that Chavez raped her in a motel room when she was 15, while Murguia says the abuse did not include intercourse. Both women describe similar patterns of behaviour, with Chavez summoning them to his office and initiating sexual contact.
The report also includes allegations from Dolores Huerta, the renowned activist and UFW co-founder, who says Chavez pressured her for sex on a work trip and later raped her in a parked car. Huerta claims these encounters led to pregnancies, which she concealed before giving the daughters away to be raised by others. Two other women, Esmeralda Lopez and her mother Cynthia Bell, say they were sexually harassed by Chavez when they were young women in the movement.
The Times reviewed a letter written by Rojas to Chavez in 1974, when she was 13, which alternates between childhood updates and bashful allusions to sexuality. Rojas and Murguia both trace subsequent mental health struggles to their experiences of abuse, with Rojas later struggling with drugs and alcohol and Murguia attempting suicide multiple times. The letter has been available in Chavez's personal archive at Wayne State University for decades.
