Cesar Chavez abuse allegations force communities to rethink honors for the labor leader

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — A blanketed figure stood Wednesday in the Peace Garden of California’s Fresno State University like a shadowy ghost. The large black sheet awkwardly held taut with plastic binder clips hid the statue of Cesar Chavez, who spent decades in the spotlight as an icon of labor power and Latino pride.

The legacy of the larger-than-life figure – who died three decades ago – was rocked Wednesday by shocking allegations in a New York Times story that Chavez sexually abused girls and women, including one of his most prominent organizing partners, for decades during his leadership of the US movement for farm workers’ rights.

Admirers and public officials are now scrambling to respond to the claims about the man who has been honored with holidays, statues and school names in communities around the country.

Here’s what we know about the allegations against Chavez and the response.

Honors for Chavez being reconsidered across the nation

The quick decision by Fresno State to cover its Chavez statue, which was erected on campus 30 years ago, was one of the most visible signs of the speed at which his memory is being reevaluated.

By the end of the day, the sculpture was encased by plywood.

“In light of the seriousness of the current revelations, as a first step, we are covering the statue while we determine appropriate next steps for its removal,” university President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said Wednesday.

“At Fresno State, our values are grounded in dignity, respect, and care for one another. When we become aware of reports of such a serious nature, we must acknowledge their weight and hold space for those who have been harmed.”

The response is even more complicated for the dozens of schools named after Chavez, as well as the states that celebrate March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day every year.

In California, where the holiday is written into state law, the two top-ranking Democrats in the state legislature announced Thursday they will sponsor a bill to change its name. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he supports the idea of a name change.

“What Cesar represented was a movement – the farm workers movement, the labor movement – and it’s right to celebrate that movement,” Newsom said Thursday when asked about the allegations during a news conference. Newsom supports moving in “the direction that many are promoting, including members of the legislature, and I look forward to moving that along in an expeditious way,” he said.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, signed a proclamation Thursday changing the name of its Cesar Chavez Day to “Farm Workers Day,” to continue to honor the movement without mentioning Chavez.

“I’ve been in touch with the Chavez family, and they support our decision to rename this holiday,” Bass said. Changes to other honors given to Chavez around the city will be considered, the mayor added.

“The plight and the struggle of the farm workers continues on, and we will honor that,” Bass said. “But we are going to have to take a look at a variety of things, including the naming of holidays, buildings, of streets, all of that.”

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced the state this year will not observe Cesar Chavez Day, which is classified as an “optional holiday” under 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,” Abbott said.

In Denver, the city’s Cesar Chavez Day will this year be called “Si, se puede” day, a nod to the “yes, we can” rallying cry of the farmers’ movement that Chavez inspired, Mayor Mike Johnston said Thursday. A name for the city’s yearly observation beyond this year will be decided later, he said.

Denver’s Cesar Chavez Park will be renamed, and a bust and plaque honoring him there will be removed, Johnston said.

In San Francisco; Austin, Texas; and other communities, activists who successfully pushed for local streets to be renamed for Chavez are now supporting the idea of changing them again.

“We have to be accountable and we have to be respectful to the women victims that were part of his experience during his lifetime and cannot be associated with a person like that,” activist Gavino Fernandez told Austin station and CNN affiliate KVUE.

Women say Chavez abused them

Rumors of sexual misconduct allegations swirling around Chavez became public this week, as the UFW Foundation – an advocacy group associated with the United Farm Workers union cofounded by Chavez – acknowledged getting word of “shocking, indefensible” behavior.

The New York Times story provided disturbing details, as two women told the newspaper they had been molested by Chavez when they were teens. Debra Rojas told the newspaper Chavez first fondled her when she was 12 years old, and that he first had sex with her when she was 15 while they were working together on a labor march.

“I feel like he’s been a shadow over my life,” Rojas told the newspaper. “I want him to stop following me around. It’s time.”

Ana Murguia told the newspaper she was first molested by Chavez when she was 13 years old.

The Times said it had corroborated the details of the women’s stories from union documents and emails, as well as interviews with people to whom they had previously told their stories privately.

Most of the abuse took place at a compound known as La Paz, the women said. The 187-acre central California property served as both a headquarters and home for Chavez.

The compound is now a national monument.

CNN has not independently verified the allegations described by The New York Times. Chavez’s family is “not in a position to judge” the newly revealed allegations against him, it told the Times.

“As a family steeped in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual misconduct,” the family told the Times. “These allegations are deeply painful to our family.”

Chavez’s closest female ally says she also is a survivor

One of the biggest surprises in the Times story was the identity of another woman who came forward: Dolores Huerta, a key partner of Chavez who cofounded the United Farm Workers. Now 95 years old, she said publicly for the first time Wednesday she had unwanted sexual encounters with Chavez on two occasions in the 1960s.

“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 written statement. “The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.”

Huerta said she became pregnant both times, bearing children who would not learn who their father was until this year.

Huerta declined an interview request from CNN Wednesday.

Huerta first became involved in community activism in 1955 in Stockton, California. As a single mother in 1962, she and Chavez created the National Farm Workers Association along with Gilbert Padilla, an organization that would later become the modern UFW.

Although they were partners in the labor movement, tension between Chavez and Huerta was long known and even mentioned in her official biography.

“As much as she was Cesar’s right hand, she could also be the greatest thorn in his side,” says a biography published by the Dolores Huerta Foundation. “The two were infamous for their blow out arguments, an element that was a natural part of their working relationship.”

Huerta later had a relationship with Chavez’s brother, Richard, and they had four children together.

In addition to her work demanding more protections for farm workers, Huerta became a key figure in the feminist movement. She serves on the board of the Feminist Majority Foundation and was an honorary cochair of the Women’s March on Washington the day after President Donald Trump’s first inauguration in 2017.

Huerta acknowledged in 2015 she did not think much about women’s rights at the beginning of her activism.

“We were so focused on helping our ‘gente,’ our people, that we were not thinking of ourselves as women or as feminists, you know,” Huerta said in an interview at the National Portrait Gallery. “We just wanted to make sure to end this discrimination, and the oppression, and so we weren’t thinking about, ‘Hey, what about women?’”

Huerta was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

“Dolores was very gracious when I told her I had stolen her slogan, ‘Sí, se puede.’  Yes, we can,” President Barack Obama joked during the ceremony at the White House.

In her statement explaining the allegations against Chavez, Huerta made clear she had no desire to have her long life defined by being a victim of sexual abuse.

“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work,” Huerta wrote. “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.”

The United Farm Workers, in a release a day before the Times article was published, called the allegations “deeply troubling” and said that it would not participate in Cesar Chavez Day activities this year.

In its own response to the report, the Cesar Chavez Foundation said it is having “a necessary conversation about our organization’s identity.”

“To the survivors: we believe you,” the foundation said. “We honor your courage, and we are very sorry for the harm you have carried in the shadows for so long.”

If you need help:

• National Domestic Violence Hotline: Call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), text START to 88788 or chat through website.
• National Sexual Assault Hotline: Call 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), text HOPE to 64673 or chat through website. Provided by RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network).

CNN’s Andi Babineau, Norma Galeana and Maria Aguilar contributed to this report.

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