As she and Cesar Chavez made history, Dolores Huerta carried a shocking secret

"I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life's work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and I wasn't going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way."

"In a emotional statement, Huerta said she felt 'manipulated and pressured' to have sex with Chavez the first time. The second time, he forced her to have sex against her will 'in an environment where I felt trapped,' she said. Both encounters led to pregnancies, which she hid at the time."

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, disclosed that Chavez sexually assaulted her on two occasions in the 1960s. She described feeling manipulated and pressured during the first encounter and forced into sex against her will during the second, both resulting in pregnancies she concealed by having children raised by other families. Huerta maintained silence for six decades, prioritizing the labor movement and farmworker rights over personal disclosure. Her revelation followed New York Times reporting of allegations that Chavez sexually abused two underage girls in the 1970s. Huerta explained her silence stemmed from commitment to the union as the essential vehicle for securing farmworker rights.

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