03/18/2026
✊🏽¡QUE VIVA DOLORES HUERTA!✊🏽
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March 18, 2026
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 s*xual 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 s*xual encounters with Cesar. The first time I was manipulated and pressured into having s*x 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 had experienced abuse and s*xual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret. Both s*xual encounters with Cesar led to pregnancies. I chose to keep my pregnancies secret and, after the children were born, I arranged for them to be raised by other families that could give them stable lives.”
Read the full statement and Spanish version via the link in bio.
