In honor of Dolores Huerta and her courage in speaking out about her sexual abuse at the hands of previously revered farmworker organizer Cesar Chavez, Genevieve Davis and Lisa Follet offer "a collection of cross-movement statements: from labor leaders and unions, reproductive justice orgs, immigrant rights groups, scholars, writers and activists."

#DoloresHuerta #CesarChavez #farmworkers #women #SexualAbuse #patriarchy #WomenofColor
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https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/21/a-movement-responds-leaders-rally-around-dolores-huerta-after-chavez-allegations/

A Movement Responds: Leaders Rally Around Dolores Huerta After Chávez Allegations

In the wake of a New York Times investigation detailing allegations of sexual abuse by labor leader Cesar Chavez—including testimony from Dolores Huerta—a chorus of feminist leaders, organizers and advocates are rallying around Huerta, centering her story and the broader truths it reveals.  "She birthed children he forced into her womb. She convinced herself to endure it alone to free others. My God, this grief I howl."

Ms. Magazine

“The silence she kept for 60 years was not weakness. It was the impossible weight that survivors of sexual violence are forced to carry—often to protect others, often at profound cost to themselves. That she carried it while simultaneously building one of the most important labor movements in American history makes her courage almost incomprehensible."

~ Feminist Majority Foundation

#DoloresHuerta #CesarChavez #farmworkers #women #SexualAbuse #patriarchy #WomenofColor
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“Abusers thrive on silence. They use decorum, respectability politics, shame, and deceit to manipulate others while abusing their targets.

One of the most powerful things we can do is disrupt this cycle by telling the truth. Shoutout to Dolores Huerta for showing us how courageous we can be when we believe in ourselves."

~ Jenn M. Jackson professor of Black Studies

#DoloresHuerta #CesarChavez #farmworkers #women #SexualAbuse #patriarchy #WomenofColor
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"She deserves justice, and we need to investigate why so many women who are the heartbeats of our movements are made to pay so dearly and are failed by the community so deeply.”

~ Ijeoma Oluo, activist and author:

#DoloresHuerta #CesarChavez #farmworkers #women #SexualAbuse #patriarchy #WomenofColor
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“Women of color will give our whole bodies to create better worlds, and what happens? We’re stuck choosing between liberating others or advocating for ourselves. We’re burdened under the egos and fables of men who used their power to disempower us."

~ Camille Hernandez, author

#DoloresHuerta #CesarChavez #farmworkers #women #SexualAbuse #patriarchy #WomenofColor
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“History shows us that women have done this time and again—working to liberate others from a broken system, all while being neglected, unprotected, and left to suffer in silence."

~ Dr. Jamila K. Taylor, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research

#DoloresHuerta #CesarChavez #farmworkers #women #SexualAbuse #patriarchy #WomenofColor
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