"One of the women said Chavez raped her in a motel room in 1975 when she was 15 years old and he was 47. The other woman said Chavez began groping her in his office at the union's headquarters when she was 13. Both women, now in their 60s, were the daughters of organizers within the farmworker movement."
"Huerta, a labor leader long revered for her work on behalf of farmworkers alongside Chavez, told the newspaper that he raped her in a car in 1966. She told the Times that 'Mr. Chavez drove her out to a secluded grape field in Delano, Calif., parked and forced her to have sex inside the vehicle.'"
"I am nearly 96 years old, and for the last 60 years have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for. 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."
The New York Times published an investigation revealing that Cesar Chavez, the renowned farmworker union leader, sexually abused two women and Dolores Huerta, his co-founder of the United Farm Workers. One woman reported Chavez raped her in a motel room in 1975 when she was 15 and he was 47. Another woman described being groped in his office starting at age 13. Huerta, now nearly 96, disclosed that Chavez raped her in a car in 1966 in a secluded grape field. She remained silent for 60 years, fearing no one would believe her and concerned the revelation would damage the farmworker movement. The Times interviewed over 60 people and reviewed supporting documents and materials corroborating the accusers' accounts.
Read at www.npr.org
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