Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez (born March 31, 1927, Yuma, Arizona, U.S.—died April 23, 1993, San Luis, Arizona) was an organizer of migrant American farmworkers and a cofounder with Dolores Huerta of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) in 1962. Cesar Chavez’s popular reputation as a self-sacrificing and heroic defender of farm workers was severely damaged in March 2026, when The New York Times reported that he had sexually assaulted many women and girls in his organization, including Huerta herself.

Early life

Chavez, who was a farm laborer himself, grew up in a family of Mexican American descent. After his parents lost their farm during the Great Depression, the family moved to California, where they became migrant workers. He lived in a succession of migrant camps and attended school sporadically. After two years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Chavez returned to migrant farmwork in Arizona and California.

Union activities

His initial training as an organizer was provided by the Community Services Organization (CSO) in California, a creation of Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation. In 1958 Chavez became general director of the CSO, but he resigned four years later to cofound the NFWA. Over time his union activities benefited farmworkers and thereby strengthened an ongoing Chicano civil rights movement, which was dedicated to gaining legal and economic equality and social justice for Mexican-Americans.

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In September 1965 Chavez began leading what became a five-year strike by California grape pickers and a nationwide boycott of California grapes that attracted liberal support from throughout the country. Subsequent battles with lettuce growers, table-grape growers, and other agribusinesses generally ended with the signing of bargaining agreements. In 1966 the NFWA merged with an American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) group to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. In 1971 this organization became the United Farm Workers (UFW).

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By the late 1960s the Teamsters Union had recognized an opportunity in Chavez’s success. It entered the fields as a rival organizer, signing up farmworkers for its own union. In 1972 Chavez sought assistance from the AFL-CIO, which offered help against the inroads being made by the Teamsters. After much conflict—both in the fields and in the courts—the UFW signed a peace pact with the Teamsters in 1977, giving the UFW the sole right to organize farmworkers and field-workers.

In recognition of his nonviolent activism and support of working people, Chavez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1994. His wife, Helen, accepted the award.

Allegations of sexual crimes

On March 17, 2026, the United Farm Workers announced that it would not participate in the annual celebration of Chavez’s birthday on March 31, known as Cesar Chavez Day, citing “troubling” and “profoundly shocking” allegations of “abuse of young women or minors.” The union had not received “direct reports” and did not have “firsthand knowledge” of the allegations, but it considered the allegations “serious enough” to warrant “urgent steps to learn more.” On March 18, the The New York Times, citing its own investigation of allegations against Chavez, found that he had sexually abused two underage girls in the 1970s, sexually assaulted Dolores Huerta, and sexually harassed other women in his movement.

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