I was saddened and very surprised to read the allegations that Cesar Chaves sexually assaulted multiple women when they were teenagers participating in the labor rights movement.

Labor movement Icon Dolores Huerta who was one of the co-founders of the National Farm Workers Association, now known as the United Farm Workers (UFW) with Chaves, she also alleged that Chavez raped her in 1966, according to reports. She claimed Chavez fathered two of her children, who were raised by others after Huerta hid both pregnancies.

When I was a union official, I had the opportunity several times to sit down and discuss her role in forming the UFW and the obstacles they faced during that time.

Cesars brother, Richard Chavez is credited with building the UFW into a major California agricultural and political organization, when I was a national organizing director I had an alliance with the farm workers and I got to know Richard Chaves very well and even had him headline big regional organizing events when a large Latino population were involved, he talked at length about his older brother and gave me an historic view of the organization and the people involved.

Now some are calling for Huerta’s name to replace Chavez’s on the plethora of government buildings, schools, monuments and streets that bear his name across the country.

With so many unions covering up their corrupt behavior it was refreshing to read that the UFW canceled participation in celebrations of Cesar Chavez amid these “troubling allegations”

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