Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, March 19, 2026
- A major investigation by the New York Times is raising serious allegations about Cesar Chavez, one of the most admired figures in Latino civil rights history. The reporting includes accounts from multiple women, including co-organizer and civil rights leader, Dolores Huerta. They say Chavez sexually abused them, in some cases, when they were children.
- Following the harrowing accounts from these women, the United Farm Workers union is now distancing itself from Chavez, its co-founder.
A moment of reflection for Californians following publication of allegations against Cesar Chavez
Labor rights activist Dolores Huerta revealed she was among women and girls who say they were sexually abused by César Chavez, the widely admired Latino icon who brought to light the struggles of farmhands while leading the United Farm Workers union.
The stunning allegations, reported by the New York Times, against Chavez, who died more than three decades ago, drew immediate calls to alter memorials honoring the man who in the 1960s helped secure better wages and working conditions for farmworkers and has been long revered by many Democratic leaders in the U.S.
Los Angeles Times Columnist Gustavo Arellano said the alleged victims need to be believed. “Every victim or survivor of sexual abuse and assault has their own path to follow. I covered the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal for decades, so I very well know, and I’m not surprised that something like this would take as long as it did, because in some cases, some of these allegations never come up,” he said. “So I know that there are some people who are saying that the timing is suspicious, but people need to disabuse themselves of those thoughts. And we need to first and foremost center our thoughts on those survivors who have come up to share their story. The reckoning, this is something that’s going to go on for days, weeks, months, years, even an entire generation.”
Municipalities across California are grappling with whether to rename dozens of buildings, parks and roads currently honoring him. Government leaders from across the state have called for some of these name changes, including in Fresno and Sacramento. In Bakersfield, city officials announced Wednesday they would pause efforts to rename a street after Chavez. State lawmakers have called for Cesar Chavez Day to be renamed “Farm Worker Day” in light of the allegations.
UFW president: ‘We do not condone the actions of César Chávez’
United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero said the rape allegations against the late labor leader César Chávez were “very difficult to hear,” and not something the organization expected.
