March 19, 2026
“I Have Kept This Secret Long Enough. My Silence Ends Here.” Growing, Disturbing Accusations Against Iconic Latino Leader
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RSS Feed 95-year-old Dolores Huerta waited 60 years to finally tell her story of sexual abuse by once beloved labor rights leader Cesar Chavez. Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers Association with Chavez back in the 1960s. Even though Chavez died more than 3 decades ago, we’re only now hearing from dozens of women after a New York Times investigation detailed decades of abuse from women who say they were as young as 12 when Chavez began to sexually abuse them. Hear how the Chavez family is reacting, how the Labor union he founded is responding and why streets, buildings and celebrations may all change because of this investigation.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, everybody. It is Thursday, March nineteenth, and this powerful statement. I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends. Here. We are hearing from a ninety five year old woman who has added to the growing accusations against iconic Latino labor rights leader Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient SAEs Our Chavez after a stunning investigation by the New York Times. And with that, everyone, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. These details, these women's stories are all powerful. But Delores huerta Wow. Her full statement is something that I believe everyone should read.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: Please let's do here. This has been breaking and a lot of headlines, a lot of people trying to understand the headlines. Some don't even understand the full history. But she is significant and was right by his side during much of his rise to prominence.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So we're going to read Delores Squerto's full statement and we'll get into the growing calls to basically reassess how we view Sayesar Chavez. We have a federal holiday the state of California honors this man. His face, his name, his likeness is all throughout this country and certainly a huge part of our history. So here now from a woman who worked alongside him and co founded his movement. I am nearly ninety six years old, and for the last sixty years have kept a secret because I believe that exposing the truth would hurt the farm worker 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 sexual misconduct by Saesar Chavez, I can no longer stay silent and must share my own experiences. As a young mother in the nineteen sixties, I experience two separate sexual encounters with Saesar. The first time, I was manipulated and pressured into having sex 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. Her story mirrors so many of the stories of the women from the New York Times article.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: Yeah and it's again. This is a ninety plusure old woman telling the story.
00:02:31
Speaker 1: Now, and she had kept this secret even from her own family. She goes on to say I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret. Both sexual encounters with Sesar led to pregnancies. I chose to keep my pregnancy secret, and after the children were born, I arranged for them to be raised by other families that could give them stable lives. Over the years, I've been fortunate to develop a deep relationship with these children, who are now close to my other children, their siblings. But even then, no one knew the full truth about how they were conceived until just a few weeks ago. That is stunning.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: Now I get this off her mind, now, yeah, I mean, she tells a pretty incredible story that, given her age or closeness to him, and frankly her motivation at this point in her life, people have to stop and you will sit up and pay attention to her.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Yes, because you know there's this this struggle I think from her and from the other women who came forward because they didn't want to tarnish this celebrated man who did so much for so many. This is a man who polled not just individual farm workers and people out of poverty, but changed generationally people's entire livelihoods. He changed the course of so many people's lives by helping them band together and demand rights and freedoms and equal pay and all of that. He did so much good in the world.
00:04:05
Speaker 2: I don't know how to people know the name. I don't know how and what. It's hard to compare, but to put him on a level it's difficult to You can't overstate his status as an icon in this country. You cannot overstate it.
00:04:22
Speaker 1: And that speaks to why she carried the secret. She said, I carried the secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farm worker rights was my life's work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to achieve and secure those rights, and I wasn't going to let Sazar or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farm workers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights. She said, I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor of violence, of sexual abuse, of domineering men who saw me and other women as property or things to control. She says, I am telling my story because the New York Times has indicated that I was not the only one. There were others. Women are coming forward sharing that they were sexually abused and assaulted by Sesar when they were girls and teenagers. The struggle. We've seen this in so many other stories, unfortunately, from Epstein to other predators, where these women are looking up to these men in positions of power, and in this case, a man who was doing good for the world. How do you how do we balance someone's legacy who did so much good with these horrific accounts we're hearing from these women.
00:05:43
Speaker 2: And as we've seen plenty of times with women in cases like this, one speaks and then here come a couple other, a dozen other thinking wow, I wasn't the only one. And we've seen this happen plenty of times before. And we should also stay well, he is not around to defend himself, and at this point I haven't heard much of anybody defending him at all.
00:06:07
Speaker 1: That's true, we will get into in just a bit. Because his foundation, his family, they have released statements in the wake of this massive investigation, but certainly hearing again more from wherever the Her statement is just remarkable, But she goes on to say, the knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did. Saesar's actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement. The farm worker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. Saesar's actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farm workers with the help of thousands of people, and we must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever. You can still hear where her heart is, her passion is, and how much she doesn't want what she has to say, what her story, what all these other women's story. She doesn't want it to take away from all that's been done and all that still needs to be done. So she talks about her commitment to workers, her commitment to women's rights, to make sure that everyone has a voice, and that communities are treated with dignity and given the equality that they have so long been denied. But yeah, I started out with this sentence. It is how she ended her statement. I just thought it was so powerful. I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here and she begins, she is about to turn ninety six. To have lived with this for that many decades is remarkable to me, and her voice matters. It has power, and I imagine more women will feel empowered because of this.
00:07:49
Speaker 2: She wasn't the one originally, right did they have her in the New York Times?
00:07:53
Speaker 1: They did not.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: So she has stepped forward. As I'm not taking any thing away from those saw the other women who have come forward. Hers is her lens incredible credibility to their claims as well.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: Absolutely, she was right by his side. They show pictures. She was there with him. She co founded the organization with him. And so we heard from the Chavez family and the foundation. They said they were devastated by the article. They described the allegations and they actually call them the revelations as deeply painful and to your point, maybe they didn't deny it. These rumors have been around. There were even reports that when someone said something to him personally in the eighties, he just kind of sighed, like made a noise, but never even responded. So this isn't a new allegation, but the sheer amount of women coming forward. The New York Times that they spoke to over sixty people, and that these accounts have almost all been beyond corroborated, that they felt very confident and they're reporting to take someone down like they had to be.
00:09:02
Speaker 2: I mean, you have this is not He's iconic. I mean he is a legend to where we celebrate his life and his contributions, not just individually, but as local and state governments we honor him. I'm not the only I'm looking towards MLK right that we Again, it's not comparative and how important someone was to a particular community, but his name lends itself to the community, the Latino community in that way. Streets, buildings, schools, statues, you name it honor this guy.
00:09:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's now all in question. We know now that several different states are now considering changing the names of those streets and those schools and those buildings. Marches have been already canceled. We're going to talk about you. Remember, like, so I knew Seesar Chavez his name for sure. I know the phrase cise pue. Yes, we can. It's been used as a political mantra, and it began with him. He was the first person to say that he he strengthened the political power of Latinos. He made politicians recognize the power of the Latino vote. Again, I mentioned he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen ninety four. I didn't know this. Biden put a bronze bust of him on display in the Oval Office. That is just speaking to his level of influence and importance in this country's history.
00:10:36
Speaker 2: Did Trump take it out immediately?
00:10:38
Speaker 1: I don't know that, but it wouldn't be surprising if that were the case. He died in nineteen ninety three at the age of sixty six. So you pointed out he's not here to defend himself. But when we come back, we're going to tell you and give you the exact statement from the Chavez family and the foundation, and will also give you the United farm Workers Association, the union that he founded, and their response to all of these allegations. And welcome back to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we are discussing the growing and just frankly shocking accusations that have been mounting against iconic Latino labor rights leaders, says our Chavez of note, his co founder, Deloresquerta, at the age of ninety five, just released a compelling statement detailing years of abuse, the fact that she even gave birth to two children she claims that were the result of being raped by Chavez. Well, we hear now from the Chavez Family Foundation. Their statement reads like this, We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward. As a family steeped and the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse. We carry our own memories of the person we knew, someone whose life included work and contributions that matter deeply to many people. That was an impactful statement.
00:12:18
Speaker 2: Well for them not to just flat out defend, I don't know how you strike the balance. You have to people have to be listened to the question that's going to and maybe this investigation will with that direction of who knew what? When we talk about rumors have been swirling around this type of thing for decades, and so were there people who did know, who were protecting this who felt that there was some argument to be made, and still today you could make the argument that what he did and his contribution was more important as a whole. I don't know if I could subscribe to that. If one person was harmed, then the movement be damned. I don't know.
00:12:58
Speaker 1: It's so difficult to separate all the good he did with all the harm he is now alleged to have brought on so many young women. And look the New York Times investigation, we're talking about women who are now detailing this abuse from fifty years ago when they were thirteen, when they were twelve, and they all have similar stories. And a lot of these young girls were daughters of organizers who were marching alongside Chavez, who were a part of this movement, and their fathers and mothers presumably thought their daughters were safe with him or around him. But these were also women who came forward, worked and volunteered with Chavez. They were enamored with him, they loved him, they loved what he did, and they were confused by the abuse because they say they stayed silent out of shame and fear of tarnishing his image. And that makes sense, And no one knew that anyone else was being harmed. When you're isolated and you're made to think you're the only one, you don't realized by not speaking up other people, other young girls might be harmed. And you can hear that in so many of these women's stories now today, with that knowledge that they weren't alone, that this was something that so many women unfortunately reportedly experienced. The United farm Workers Association, I think it's fair to say they're distancing themselves from Chavez at this point. Now, lots of cancelations. What do you mean, March thirty first is the formal holiday, says our Chavez Day, The actual organization that Chavez founded is now abstaining from the formal holiday, which is recognized in California, Utah, Arizona, and Washington. That's remarkable.
00:14:46
Speaker 2: I mean, they are essentially abandoning their hero, the guy who found at the organization, who was the head of a particular movement. Now, I think that says even more than her statement is that we the organization in which he is beloved, we're not with him anymore. It's difficult because he's not around to defend himself and nobody is defending him, so it's difficult to just pile on quite frankly, and what are accusations? He was never brought to right any no any judicial system to face any type of any type of justice. So what do you do? What happens now? You have to believe the women that have come forward, and we have to, I guess, come to grips with this legend did monstrous things behind the scenes, which means now what I mean.
00:15:43
Speaker 1: I think it's a cautionary tale about unchecked power, about even if someone is doing good and making change for good in the world and empowering people who have no voice, those people still have to be checked. They still have to be held accountable. They can't be hailed as gods or heroes or put on some pedestal where they're allowed to do whatever they want because of the good they have done in the world. Somehow they get to do whatever they want. They get this feeling of grandeur of not being held accountable. They feel like they're invincible. These are cautionary tales. This isn't the first one. Unfortunately it won't be the last one, but it's something to remember and it's important to discuss and talk about so we can hopefully try to prevent this from happening again. But yeah, we're now looking at perhaps massive changes in not just government buildings and streets and celebrations and parades and marches and busts and pictures that are everywhere of Sesar Chavez, but certainly just another reminder that good people can do bad things, and that we have to be willing to recognize all of the above and listen to the women who are speaking up and speaking out, and certainly Dolores Puerta has us all listening to her, and with that, everyone, we appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy roback alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, everybody. It is Thursday, March nineteenth, and this powerful statement. I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends. Here. We are hearing from a ninety five year old woman who has added to the growing accusations against iconic Latino labor rights leader Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient SAEs Our Chavez after a stunning investigation by the New York Times. And with that, everyone, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. These details, these women's stories are all powerful. But Delores huerta Wow. Her full statement is something that I believe everyone should read.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: Please let's do here. This has been breaking and a lot of headlines, a lot of people trying to understand the headlines. Some don't even understand the full history. But she is significant and was right by his side during much of his rise to prominence.
00:01:02
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So we're going to read Delores Squerto's full statement and we'll get into the growing calls to basically reassess how we view Sayesar Chavez. We have a federal holiday the state of California honors this man. His face, his name, his likeness is all throughout this country and certainly a huge part of our history. So here now from a woman who worked alongside him and co founded his movement. I am nearly ninety six years old, and for the last sixty years have kept a secret because I believe that exposing the truth would hurt the farm worker 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 sexual misconduct by Saesar Chavez, I can no longer stay silent and must share my own experiences. As a young mother in the nineteen sixties, I experience two separate sexual encounters with Saesar. The first time, I was manipulated and pressured into having sex 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. Her story mirrors so many of the stories of the women from the New York Times article.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: Yeah and it's again. This is a ninety plusure old woman telling the story.
00:02:31
Speaker 1: Now, and she had kept this secret even from her own family. She goes on to say I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret. Both sexual encounters with Sesar led to pregnancies. I chose to keep my pregnancy secret, and after the children were born, I arranged for them to be raised by other families that could give them stable lives. Over the years, I've been fortunate to develop a deep relationship with these children, who are now close to my other children, their siblings. But even then, no one knew the full truth about how they were conceived until just a few weeks ago. That is stunning.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: Now I get this off her mind, now, yeah, I mean, she tells a pretty incredible story that, given her age or closeness to him, and frankly her motivation at this point in her life, people have to stop and you will sit up and pay attention to her.
00:03:30
Speaker 1: Yes, because you know there's this this struggle I think from her and from the other women who came forward because they didn't want to tarnish this celebrated man who did so much for so many. This is a man who polled not just individual farm workers and people out of poverty, but changed generationally people's entire livelihoods. He changed the course of so many people's lives by helping them band together and demand rights and freedoms and equal pay and all of that. He did so much good in the world.
00:04:05
Speaker 2: I don't know how to people know the name. I don't know how and what. It's hard to compare, but to put him on a level it's difficult to You can't overstate his status as an icon in this country. You cannot overstate it.
00:04:22
Speaker 1: And that speaks to why she carried the secret. She said, I carried the secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farm worker rights was my life's work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to achieve and secure those rights, and I wasn't going to let Sazar or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farm workers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights. She said, I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor of violence, of sexual abuse, of domineering men who saw me and other women as property or things to control. She says, I am telling my story because the New York Times has indicated that I was not the only one. There were others. Women are coming forward sharing that they were sexually abused and assaulted by Sesar when they were girls and teenagers. The struggle. We've seen this in so many other stories, unfortunately, from Epstein to other predators, where these women are looking up to these men in positions of power, and in this case, a man who was doing good for the world. How do you how do we balance someone's legacy who did so much good with these horrific accounts we're hearing from these women.
00:05:43
Speaker 2: And as we've seen plenty of times with women in cases like this, one speaks and then here come a couple other, a dozen other thinking wow, I wasn't the only one. And we've seen this happen plenty of times before. And we should also stay well, he is not around to defend himself, and at this point I haven't heard much of anybody defending him at all.
00:06:07
Speaker 1: That's true, we will get into in just a bit. Because his foundation, his family, they have released statements in the wake of this massive investigation, but certainly hearing again more from wherever the Her statement is just remarkable, But she goes on to say, the knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me. My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did. Saesar's actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement. The farm worker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. Saesar's actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farm workers with the help of thousands of people, and we must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever. You can still hear where her heart is, her passion is, and how much she doesn't want what she has to say, what her story, what all these other women's story. She doesn't want it to take away from all that's been done and all that still needs to be done. So she talks about her commitment to workers, her commitment to women's rights, to make sure that everyone has a voice, and that communities are treated with dignity and given the equality that they have so long been denied. But yeah, I started out with this sentence. It is how she ended her statement. I just thought it was so powerful. I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here and she begins, she is about to turn ninety six. To have lived with this for that many decades is remarkable to me, and her voice matters. It has power, and I imagine more women will feel empowered because of this.
00:07:49
Speaker 2: She wasn't the one originally, right did they have her in the New York Times?
00:07:53
Speaker 1: They did not.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: So she has stepped forward. As I'm not taking any thing away from those saw the other women who have come forward. Hers is her lens incredible credibility to their claims as well.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: Absolutely, she was right by his side. They show pictures. She was there with him. She co founded the organization with him. And so we heard from the Chavez family and the foundation. They said they were devastated by the article. They described the allegations and they actually call them the revelations as deeply painful and to your point, maybe they didn't deny it. These rumors have been around. There were even reports that when someone said something to him personally in the eighties, he just kind of sighed, like made a noise, but never even responded. So this isn't a new allegation, but the sheer amount of women coming forward. The New York Times that they spoke to over sixty people, and that these accounts have almost all been beyond corroborated, that they felt very confident and they're reporting to take someone down like they had to be.
00:09:02
Speaker 2: I mean, you have this is not He's iconic. I mean he is a legend to where we celebrate his life and his contributions, not just individually, but as local and state governments we honor him. I'm not the only I'm looking towards MLK right that we Again, it's not comparative and how important someone was to a particular community, but his name lends itself to the community, the Latino community in that way. Streets, buildings, schools, statues, you name it honor this guy.
00:09:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's now all in question. We know now that several different states are now considering changing the names of those streets and those schools and those buildings. Marches have been already canceled. We're going to talk about you. Remember, like, so I knew Seesar Chavez his name for sure. I know the phrase cise pue. Yes, we can. It's been used as a political mantra, and it began with him. He was the first person to say that he he strengthened the political power of Latinos. He made politicians recognize the power of the Latino vote. Again, I mentioned he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen ninety four. I didn't know this. Biden put a bronze bust of him on display in the Oval Office. That is just speaking to his level of influence and importance in this country's history.
00:10:36
Speaker 2: Did Trump take it out immediately?
00:10:38
Speaker 1: I don't know that, but it wouldn't be surprising if that were the case. He died in nineteen ninety three at the age of sixty six. So you pointed out he's not here to defend himself. But when we come back, we're going to tell you and give you the exact statement from the Chavez family and the foundation, and will also give you the United farm Workers Association, the union that he founded, and their response to all of these allegations. And welcome back to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we are discussing the growing and just frankly shocking accusations that have been mounting against iconic Latino labor rights leaders, says our Chavez of note, his co founder, Deloresquerta, at the age of ninety five, just released a compelling statement detailing years of abuse, the fact that she even gave birth to two children she claims that were the result of being raped by Chavez. Well, we hear now from the Chavez Family Foundation. Their statement reads like this, We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward. As a family steeped and the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse. We carry our own memories of the person we knew, someone whose life included work and contributions that matter deeply to many people. That was an impactful statement.
00:12:18
Speaker 2: Well for them not to just flat out defend, I don't know how you strike the balance. You have to people have to be listened to the question that's going to and maybe this investigation will with that direction of who knew what? When we talk about rumors have been swirling around this type of thing for decades, and so were there people who did know, who were protecting this who felt that there was some argument to be made, and still today you could make the argument that what he did and his contribution was more important as a whole. I don't know if I could subscribe to that. If one person was harmed, then the movement be damned. I don't know.
00:12:58
Speaker 1: It's so difficult to separate all the good he did with all the harm he is now alleged to have brought on so many young women. And look the New York Times investigation, we're talking about women who are now detailing this abuse from fifty years ago when they were thirteen, when they were twelve, and they all have similar stories. And a lot of these young girls were daughters of organizers who were marching alongside Chavez, who were a part of this movement, and their fathers and mothers presumably thought their daughters were safe with him or around him. But these were also women who came forward, worked and volunteered with Chavez. They were enamored with him, they loved him, they loved what he did, and they were confused by the abuse because they say they stayed silent out of shame and fear of tarnishing his image. And that makes sense, And no one knew that anyone else was being harmed. When you're isolated and you're made to think you're the only one, you don't realized by not speaking up other people, other young girls might be harmed. And you can hear that in so many of these women's stories now today, with that knowledge that they weren't alone, that this was something that so many women unfortunately reportedly experienced. The United farm Workers Association, I think it's fair to say they're distancing themselves from Chavez at this point. Now, lots of cancelations. What do you mean, March thirty first is the formal holiday, says our Chavez Day, The actual organization that Chavez founded is now abstaining from the formal holiday, which is recognized in California, Utah, Arizona, and Washington. That's remarkable.
00:14:46
Speaker 2: I mean, they are essentially abandoning their hero, the guy who found at the organization, who was the head of a particular movement. Now, I think that says even more than her statement is that we the organization in which he is beloved, we're not with him anymore. It's difficult because he's not around to defend himself and nobody is defending him, so it's difficult to just pile on quite frankly, and what are accusations? He was never brought to right any no any judicial system to face any type of any type of justice. So what do you do? What happens now? You have to believe the women that have come forward, and we have to, I guess, come to grips with this legend did monstrous things behind the scenes, which means now what I mean.
00:15:43
Speaker 1: I think it's a cautionary tale about unchecked power, about even if someone is doing good and making change for good in the world and empowering people who have no voice, those people still have to be checked. They still have to be held accountable. They can't be hailed as gods or heroes or put on some pedestal where they're allowed to do whatever they want because of the good they have done in the world. Somehow they get to do whatever they want. They get this feeling of grandeur of not being held accountable. They feel like they're invincible. These are cautionary tales. This isn't the first one. Unfortunately it won't be the last one, but it's something to remember and it's important to discuss and talk about so we can hopefully try to prevent this from happening again. But yeah, we're now looking at perhaps massive changes in not just government buildings and streets and celebrations and parades and marches and busts and pictures that are everywhere of Sesar Chavez, but certainly just another reminder that good people can do bad things, and that we have to be willing to recognize all of the above and listen to the women who are speaking up and speaking out, and certainly Dolores Puerta has us all listening to her, and with that, everyone, we appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy roback alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to you soon.