Courtesy of SWC
By Alfonso Julián Camacho
A Perspective
My blood runs cold and my chest is tight from grief. Our Latino community so in need of heroes lost one…and savagely.
Latinos endured the shocking story of sexual misconduct by their labor champion, Cesar E. Chavez. The lionized superhero of murals, poems and corridos allegedly twice raped revered matriarch Dolores Huerta, herself a legendary American labor leader, civil rights icon and feminist. He is also accused of multiple sex acts with at least two children.
Chavez fought alongside Huerta to found the groundbreaking United Farm Workers union, an enormous achievement that energized Latinos and was a guiding light of hope. Their work greatly improved the landscape for farm workers who were suddenly treated as human beings rather than expendable braceros. They seemed like the Batman and Robin of row crops, indivisible angels of altruism.
Turns out it was all myth.
At 96 Huerta gathered the courage to speak the truth and reveal the horror of living under coercion by Chavez. A recent article in The New York Times further uncovered his proclivity for young girls and forced sex.
“Unfortunately, he used some of his great leadership to abuse women and children — it’s really awful,” Ms. Huerta said to the New York Times.
Huerta said a handful of people knew, but they pleaded with her to keep the secret so the mystique of the UFW Movement was not destroyed.
She did.
Two women who described being sexually abused by Chavez when they were children ended the decades-long charade. Huerta and the victims are now advocating for other victims.
Rapes endured by Huerta resulted in two children sired by Chavez. The DNA doesn’t lie.
As citizens of 2026 learn the painful truth of the 1960s-‘80s, pain festers in the Latino community.
Yanelli Zavina Robles, 27, Editor-in-Chief of the Southwestern College Sun, said she is irate. Herself a survivor of sexual abuse, a Chicana and a single mother of two, Robles said she feels Huerta’s grief like a dagger in her heart.
“Reading the news that day felt as if I was reliving my abuse,” she said. “But it also felt as if there was a sense of accomplishment. Hispanic culture is known for keeping abuse like this a secret when it’s something that should be spoken about. (Dolores Huerta gave me) a sense of peace, like I felt during the Me Too Movement. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone…that I wasn’t the only one to go through it.”
Her cry was echoed by male students who felt Chavez’s crimes tarnished their Latino identity and reminded them of the machismo Latino culture’s history of abuse. They lost a hero to the cancerous culture that pervades Latin America. So did Robles.
“(The news) resonated with me as a woman, as a Chicana and as a survivor,” he said. “It’s women like Dolores and the other survivors who came forward that allowed me to feel seen and validated. It is very common in our culture to be silenced yet, in this moment, we were seen… and supported by our community.”
Huerta’s abuse inundates me with sorrow for every vulnerable student. Quantitative social research concludes that nearly 90 percent of autistic people experience intimate partner violence, sexual assault or domestic abuse.
As a non-speaker my risk of abuse is almost 100 percent and the probability of finding my abuser is extremely low. I count on people like Chavez to stand for my rights. I am at the mercy of bad people’s most abominable impulses.
Chavez betrayed me before I was even born. He failed as a role model. He failed as a man. He betrayed every woman, disabled and LBGTQIA+ member of our campus. He betrayed every good man unfairly seen by women and children through fearful eyes.
Southwestern College’s most important building – the Student Services Center – bore his name. Now it is unnamed. Robles has thoughts.
RELATED STORY: Student Services Center Getting Renamed / News
“The name of our nameless building should honor someone who has been committed to education, someone who can be an inspiration,” she said. “It needs a name that resonates with students and reflects the mission of Southwestern College. Could it be Huerta? Yes. But it can also honor someone who has been an advocate for our student body.”
A hero has fallen of his own making. The inability of Chavez to treat girls and women with respect and care disqualifies him as a role model. Latinos can do better.
Dolores Huerta was always the brains of the UFW. She is a warrior for farm workers’ rights, who bravely built the UFW while being emotionally and physically abused by her co-founder. She sacrificed her dignity and happiness to protect the dignity of abused farm workers.
At 96 she is leading a new battle, this time for abused women. Justice for Huerta is recognizing her as the real strategist and heroine of the farmworkers’ movement. “Sí se puede” were always her words. They remain so today.
