Cesar Chavez Was a Serial Child Rapist
The iconic labor leader had a dark secret.
NYT reporters Manny Fernandez and Sarah Hurtes have uncovered a major scandal involving a civil rights icon who died 33 years ago.
“Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years“
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.
Recently, more than 50 years later, Ms. Murguia learned that a street near her home in the Central California city of Bakersfield was in the process of being renamed. City officials want to name it in honor of her abuser.
Cesar Chavez Boulevard.
Ms. Murguia and another woman, Debra Rojas, say that Mr. Chavez sexually abused them for years when they were girls, from around 1972 to 1977. He was in his 40s and had become a powerful, charismatic figure who captured global attention as a champion of farmworker rights.
The two women have not shared their stories publicly before, and an investigation by The New York Times has uncovered extensive evidence to support their accusations and those raised by several other women against Mr. Chavez, the United Farm Workers co-founder who died in 1993 at the age of 66.
The questions raised by The Times about Mr. Chavez, one of the most consequential figures in Mexican American history, immediately prompted organizations with ties to him to try to distance themselves. The U.F.W. canceled its annual celebrations honoring Mr. Chavez, a response to what the union he once led called “profoundly shocking” accusations.
Marches to honor Mr. Chavez were called off in Austin, Texas; Tucson, Ariz.; and elsewhere. Officials in multiple states said they would consider renaming the scores of streets and schools named in his honor. “None of us knew,” Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on Wednesday, noting that he planned to discuss with legislators whether to rename Cesar Chavez Day on March 31.
Ms. Murguia and Ms. Rojas, both of whom are now 66, were the daughters of longtime organizers who had marched in rallies alongside Mr. Chavez. He used the privacy of his California office to frequently molest Ms. Murguia, she said. He had known her since she was 8 years old. She became so traumatized that she attempted to end her life multiple times by the age of 15.
[…]
The abuse allegations appear to be part of a larger pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Chavez, much of which has never been publicly revealed. The Times investigation found that Mr. Chavez also used many of the women who worked and volunteered in his movement for his own sexual gratification. His most prominent female ally in the movement, Dolores Huerta, said in an interview that he sexually assaulted her, a disclosure she has never before made publicly.
Many of the women stayed silent for decades, both out of shame and for fear of tarnishing the image of a man who has become the face of the Latino civil rights movement, his image on school murals and his birthday a state holiday in California.
The findings are based on interviews with more than 60 people, including his top aides at the time, his relatives and former members of the U.F.W., which he co-founded with Ms. Huerta and Gilbert Padilla. The Times reviewed hundreds of pages of union records, confidential emails and photographs, as well as hours of audio recordings from U.F.W. board meetings.
The accounts of abuse from Ms. Murguia and Ms. Rojas were independently verified through interviews with those they confided in decades ago and in more recent years. Elements of their stories were also corroborated in documents, emails, itineraries and other writings from union organizers, supporters of Mr. Chavez and historians.
There’s a whole lot more at the link, as well as at least two related stories at the paper:
- Pooja Salhotra, Laurel Rosenhall, and Shawn Hubler, “More Cesar Chavez Fallout Expected After Sex Abuse Accusations.”
- Sarah Hurtes and Manny Fernandez, “‘We’re Just Seen as Sex Objects’: Dolores Huerta’s Years in the U.F.W.“
While I’m not familiar with the reporters here, the description of the investigative process is quite compelling, indeed. And there’s simply no way the publisher and editors of the NYT would go forward with such explosive charges against a figure beloved of much of their core readership were they even slightly concerned about the veracity of the allegations.
Needless to say, naming schools and streets—much less a national holiday—in his honor would be inappropriate in light of this information. Ironically, it would not preclude holding high political office.
To no one’s surprise, evil can hide within the seemingly, best of men.
The RW press is having fun with this, while ignoring the victims (again no surprise), but something I noted yesterday, is how fast Cali Dems, in particular, have moved to scrub the community of totems of public tribute.
There’s an old urban legend that Fred Rogers was once a violent criminal. Not only is this claim false, it turns out he was exactly the wonderful human being everyone thought he was. At least as far as we know.
I’ve always taken the urban legend to be a sign of how jaded we’ve become over the years, always expecting the most beloved of people to be unmasked with some dark, dirty secret that changes our entire view of them. It’s happened for real so many times, we’ve become gun-shy.
What is it with middle-aged or older men and barely pubescent girls? Epstein, Trump, Chavez, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Andrew…Do they like the feeling of power raping a child gives them? What?
Didn’t we know this already? The reporting is definitely referencing allegations and interviews that have been around for many years, in addition to the new reporting — although this may be the first time it’s being widely reported that the 14 years old girls were “children” rather than “young women.”
I do wonder why the NY Times is working on this story now, and what purpose they hope to achieve through it. They often engage in accurate reporting emphasized for a goal (see Clinton’s emails and Biden’s age, and the volume of reporting there compared to Trump’s everything), so I assume they have an agenda.
Newsom is lying here, of course. The allegations were definitely circulating when Cesar Chavez day was created.
Are we also in favor of renaming schools and streets named after our problematic slave-owning Presidents now? What about the ones who raped their 14 year old slaves?
I’ve been told by several people that this is the type of insufferable nonsense that progressives do that makes everyone hate them. And so, I would propose a more radical solution, where we leave the names largely intact to honor the contributions that these Great Men have made, while acknowledging their flaws and contradictions.
This does, unfortunately, mean that someone might be going to the “Thomas Jefferson (Child Fucker) High School”. Just something to consider on this upcoming Cesar Chavez (Child Fucker) Day.
@CSK:
I’ve seen him referred to as The Andrew Formerly Known As Prince. Was he an artist?
@CSK:
Real women are challenging and judgmental and capable of making. . . comparisons?
There’s a reason why these guys have to go straight to the special wing of the prison, it’s not just the creepiness of the crime, it’s that you’ve marked yourself as weak. You’re a predator who preys on mice, locked in a cage with lions and tigers and bears.
General observation:
The list of laws that appear to violate the classical liberal idea that laws should be based on rationality is rather long. Especially given what we now know about behavioral development and age.
On this particular topic:
Here is the umbrella Wiki for age of consent laws. General AOC is set at the state level in Australia, Mexico, and the US. I assume marriage laws play a role. I note that enforcement likely varies a bit by local custom. Moreover, I wonder whether the laws in some states require a complainant other than the state for charges to be brought.
I was taken aback by the geographical distribution of the laws. Specifically the number of OECD countries that set the age at 14 or 15. Japan raised it from 13 to 16 in 2023.
In the US, it is 16 in 31 of the states, 17 in 7, and 18 in 12. One state in Mexico does not have an age, but bases it on puberty, though that may have changed since the map was created.
Jurisdictions that set it at 18 are all over the place across the world—mostly in Africa. Almost none of them are in Europe.* There, it mostly ranges from 13-16, with a few set at 17.
*Turkey and Vatican City. But the latter is marriage dependent. The law in force now was enacted in 2013. 18 for unmarried persons. To enter into marriage, boys must be 16, girls 14.
@Sleeping Dog: Cancel culture is back, thank gawd. I’m pretty plugged in when it comes to the rumor mill about predators, scumbags, and peds; screamed into the void about John Edwards, Kevin Spacey, and Bill Cosby long before their sleaze broke through into the mainstream. But never heard an untoward word about Cesar Chavez till yesterday. Hm.
@Gustopher: @DK: I’m pretty sure raping children was a crime in 1960s and 1970s California, whereas slaveholding was literally a Constitutionally protected right in Jefferson’s time.
@Kurtz: Yes, that’s something I’ve remarked upon from time to time over the years. I’m pretty sure my paternal grandmother was married at 13 or 14. Most US states still allow marriage at 16 with parental consent.