Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years

[demmiblue]

Source: NYT

The reporters interviewed several women who told their stories for the first time, as well as more than 60 other people, including Cesar Chavez’s top aides and relatives. The reporters also reviewed hundreds of pages of union records, confidential emails, photographs and other material.

Ana Murguia remembers the day the man she had regarded as a hero called her house and summoned her to see him. She walked along a dirt trail, entered the rundown building, passed his secretary and stepped into his office.

He locked the door, as he always did when he called her, and told her how lonely he had been. He brought her onto the yoga mat that he often used in his office for meditation, kissed her and pulled her pants down. “Don’t tell anyone,” he told her afterward. “They’d get jealous.”

The man, Cesar Chavez, one of the most revered figures in the Latino civil rights movement, was 45. She was 13. Ms. Murguia said she was summoned for sexual encounters with him dozens of times over the next four years.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html?nl=breaking-news&segment_id=216850

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Late civil rights icon Cesar Chavez accused of sexually abusing young girls in the movement for years

Dolores Huerta also discloses for first time that that Chavez raped her.

Gift link:

— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath.bsky.social) 2026-03-18T14:19:06.189Z

[whathehell]

1. I suggest clicking the link & reading the entire article..

..Pretty sickening.

[Goonch]

2. ;-{)......

[demmiblue]

3. Today, civil rights leader Dolores Huerta issued the following statement:

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.

I have encouraged people to always use their voice. Following the New York Times’ multi-year investigation into sexual misconduct by Cesar Chavez, I can no longer stay silent and must share my own experiences.

As a young mother in the 1960s, I experienced two separate sexual encounters with Cesar. 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. The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.

…

I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here.”

https://medium.com/@dolores_huerta/march-18-2026-e74c20430555

[BidenRocks]

4. A pedo? They will destroy him!

He should have run for president where he would be safe with the GOP!

Let me know when we get past here say and into an actual trial conviction.

There are very few historical figures we couldn't destroy!

MLK, JFK, most politicians...

I think Chavez is a distraction to restarting oil drilling off Santa Barbara, where a large oil spill happened in 1969 and again in 2015.

The timing is too convenient.

[Prairie Gates]

6. The New York Times has been investigating the story for five years

They first received a tip on it in 2021.

[Festivito]

7. She says she came out now because NYT said there are others.

I wonder if she thinks telling a story would help others. I wonder if there are others.

[Sneederbunk]

5. A lot of street names are going to be changed.