Cesar Chavez, civil rights leader, accused of sexual abuse of girls and women

Allegations that civil rights icon Cesar Chavez raped and sexually abused underage girls landed like a bombshell Wednesday in New Mexico, where he has enjoyed reverential status for decades.

Adding to the heartbreak was a statement released Wednesday by New Mexico native Dolores Huerta revealing that she too experienced coerced and forced sexual encounters with Chavez that resulted in pregnancies in the 1960s.

Huerta, 95, who was born in Colfax County and went on to co-found the National Farm Workers Association with Chavez, revealed that her two children with Chavez were "raised by other families that could give them stable lives," according to her statement.

"As a young mother in the 1960s, I experienced two separate sexual encounters with Cesar (Chavez)," Huerta wrote in the statement posted on Medium, an online publishing platform.

"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," she wrote. "The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped."

Huerta, who helped run the run the farmworkers union with Chavez, said she was prompted to come forward by an investigation by The New York Times that identified allegations of sexual abuse by Chavez against two girls.

Huerta said she kept the secret for 60 years "because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life's work" and she feared the revelations would damage the movement.

Dealing with Chavez’s legacy

The allegations create a dilemma for officials in New Mexico where dozens of streets, murals, schools, community centers and memorials are dedicated to the revered Latino civil rights leader.

Reactions followed quickly on Wednesday. New Mexico leaders expressed disgust and heartbreak, and a few called for the removal of Chavez’s name from public venues.

Many of the statements had a common theme that the movement to organize farm workers was the work of many people, and not that of a single leader.

“The allegations against Cesar Chavez are horrific," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in statement. "I pray for all of the survivors, including Dolores Huerta. I keep Dolores, her family, and the entire farmworker movement in my heart.”

In Albuquerque alone, Chavez's name is fixed to a charter high school, a community center and a major east-west roadway that also bears Huerta’s name. The roadway, called Bridge SW west of the Rio Grande, is called Avenida Dolores Huerta as far east as Second Street, where it is called Avenida Cesar Chavez.

Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement Wednesday that the city would “take a fresh look at how Chavez is recognized across our programs, events, committees, and spaces, and to recommend changes that honor the full truth while continuing to uplift the movement for economic justice that shaped our community.”

Keller did not say definitively when, or if, the street or community center would be renamed.

Albuquerque City Councilor Joaquín Baca said Wednesday he will work with other councilors to remove Chavez's name from public venues.

"While Cesar did an enormous amount for our communities and workers’ rights, it’s a legacy that now will have to be held to account," Baca said in a statement.

An annual event honoring both Chavez and Huerta, scheduled for April 25 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, has been “temporarily postponed” at the request of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and her family, according to an announcement made Jan. 22 on Instagram by the New Mexico organization Recuerda a Cesar Chavez Committee.

Huerta's New Mexico origins

Huerta was born on April 10, 1930, in the now-abandoned mining town of Dawson in northern New Mexico. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and her mother moved to Stockton, California, with her three children, according to her biography in the National Women's History Museum.

She began her career as an activist in 1955 and co-founded the Agricultural Workers Association, which led to her early association with Chavez. In 1963, she and Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, the predecessor of the United Farm Workers' Union.

Huerta told The New York Times that she felt pressured to have sex with Chavez in a hotel in San Juan Capistrano in Southern California.

Huerta said that she became pregnant with Chavez’s child but hid any signs under ponchos and baggy clothing as she continued to organize. After giving birth to the girl, in secret, she gave the child away to another family.

In 1966, Chavez raped her in his car after driving her to a secluded grape field in California, the Times reported. Huerta also became pregnant following the rape and again gave the child to another family. Chavez died in 1993.

The revelations rewrite a history that championed Chavez and Huerta as egalitarian partners in the Chicano civil rights movement.

Both Huerta and Chavez visited New Mexico many times. Huerta came to Albuquerque in April for the annual Delores Huerta Day of Service. In an interview with the Albuquerque Journal, Huerta acknowledged that the FBI kept a file on her.

"Well, these are things that are going to happen. You just have to kind of ignore them, and keep your eye on the prize, keep working for what we're working for."

Other response

“The farmworker and civil rights movement was built by countless people — especially women and families who sacrificed everything for a better future," said U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M. "That history is bigger than any one person. Honoring that legacy means facing painful truths and continuing the work for justice with honesty and humanity.

"I am heartbroken and deeply disturbed by the stories that have come forward from women who say they were abused as girls by Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta’s painful account of what she endured," Leger Fernández said.

Paula Castillo, a New Mexico artist who created a monument to Chavez in Albuquerque's Broadway neighborhood in 2010, said the title of the piece could be changed "to more clearly reflect the farmworkers and communities it honors, rather than a single individual."

Zack Quintero, executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, said he was "shocked and deeply disturbed" by the allegations.

"The movement started by the neighbors, families, and farm workers of the Southwest — rooted in community action, civic engagement, and respect for human dignity — is larger than any one individual or specific group," Quintero said. "We are committed to continuing to share that story through our programming which advances and elevates the stories and history of the civil rights and labor movements."

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., called the allegations "horrific" and a "betrayal of the values that Latino leaders have championed for generations."

Lujan also called for Chavez's name to be removed from landmarks and institutions named after him.

“The fight for civil rights, fair wages, and dignity has always been carried forward by millions of Latino workers, organizers, and families. Those are the values that we must uphold and fight for every single day."

Journal staff writers Gillian Barkhurst and Natalie Robbins and executive editor Jay Newton Small contributed to this report.

Olivier Uyttebrouck covers the court system. You can reach him at olivier@abqjournal.com.