Events and celebrations honoring Cesar Chavez are now in question after abuse allegations involving young women and minors surfaced about him in a report by the New York Times.
Officials with the United Farm Workers Union say they will not take part in any upcoming Cesar Chavez Day events while they look into the claim and search for anyone with firsthand knowledge.
"The UFW has learned of deeply troubling allegations that one of the union’s co-founders, Cesar Chavez, behaved in ways that are incompatible with our organization’s values," a statement by UFW read. "Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on. Far more troubling are allegations involving abuse of young women or minors. Allegations that very young women or girls may have been victimized are crushing."
The New York Times interviewed more than 60 people and compiled hundreds of pages of records, emails, and writings that Chavez groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the movement.
Civil Rights leader Dolores Huerta, who co-founded United Farm Workers with Chavez, was among the women interviewed who said Chavez sexually assaulted them.
Huerta said she had two separate sexual encounters with Cesar. The first, she said, she was manipulated and pressured into having sex with him, and didn't feel she could say no. The second time, she said, "she was forced, against her will, and in an environment where she felt trapped."
In a statement on Facebook, Huerta wrote that she “can't stay silent anymore” and that she felt “exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement [she] has spent [her] entire life fighting for."
LA Times columnist Gustavo Arrellano told LA’s Morning News that people are still in a daze about the allegations.
“We're talking allegations of a Me Too nature involving both adult women and minors, and that alone is just a red flag for so many people,” he said. “I just cannot reiterate how key it is that both of these organizations feel so strongly about this that they're already coming out with these statements and also offering recourse for any alleged survivors.”
Cesar Chavez Day is observed on March 31st.
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