After the release of an extensive investigation into celebrated labor leader Cesar Chavez’s sexual abuse of girls, civil rights icon Dolores Huerta has shared she was one of his victims.
Huerta, who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Chavez and activist Gilbert Padilla, issued a statement Wednesday morning following a bombshell exposé from The New York Times.
“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,” she wrote in a post on Medium.
“I have encouraged people to always use their voice,” her statement went on. “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.”
