PULSE POINTS
❓WHAT HAPPENED: The late leftist and progressive icon Cesar Chavez raped two underage girls, as well as Dolores Huerta—a fellow farmworker labor leader—in the 1960s and ’70s, according to a new investigation.
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👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Cesar Chavez, Ana Murguia, Debra Rojas, Dolores Huerta, the United Farm Workers, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Bob Menendez.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The investigation into the allegations against Chavez was published on March 18, 2026, with the alleged sexual assaults occurring between 1966 and the late 1970s.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Wake up people. This man u march for every year molested me.” — Debra Rojas
🎯IMPACT: For decades, Chavez—who claimed he drew political inspiration from the likes of Niccolò Machiavelli, Adolf Hitler, and especially Mao Zedong—has been hailed as a leftist and progressive icon by Democrat lawmakers. His home, including his private office where many of the assaults allegedly took place, was dedicated as a national monument by Barack Obama in 2012.
The late leftist and progressive icon Cesar Chavez raped two underage girls, as well as Dolores Huerta—a fellow farmworker labor leader—in the 1960s and ’70s, according to a new investigation. Revealed by the New York Times, Chavez allegedly first raped Huerta in 1966.
“Mr. Chavez drove her out to a secluded grape field in Delano, Calif., parked and forced her to have sex inside the vehicle. She said she chose not to report the assault to the police because of their hostility toward the movement, and she feared that no one within the union would believe her,” the investigation states. Further, the report claims that between 1972 and 1977, Chavez repeatedly raped Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, while both were underage and the farmworker leader was in his forties.
While the two women have remained relatively quiet on the allegations for years, Rojas alluded to the sexual assaults nearly a decade ago in a private Facebook group, writing at the time, “Wake up people. This man u march for every year molested me.” The group—comprised of longtime organizers who had worked with Chavez and supporters of his movement—was planning celebrations for Cesar Chavez Day, first proclaimed by former President Barack Obama in 2014.
Rojas says she was just 12 years old when Chavez first began molesting her. She detailed how the avowed Maoist farmworker leader would use the privacy of his office to touch her genitals and fondle her breasts out of the view of others. She stated that when she was 15 years old, Chavez kept her stashed in a motel room for an entire week so that he could repeatedly engage in sexual intercourse with her.
Meanwhile, Ana Murguia detailed her first sexual encounter with Chavez, stating she was summoned to his office where he sat her on a yoga mat, kissed her, and removed her pants. “Don’t tell anyone, they’d get jealous,” Chavez allegedly told Murguia. The woman says Chavez molested her repeatedly in his private office, leading to her attempting suicide on multiple occasions. “I wanted to die,” Murguia said. She had known Chavez since she was around eight years old.
Critically, the revelations regarding Chavez’s pedophilic rape and molestation of young girls come a day after the United Farm Workers—the labor organization he founded—stated it would not participate in celebrations of its one-time leader. Calling the allegations against Chavez “troubling,” the labor union, in a statement, says the claims against him “are incompatible with our organization’s values. Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on. Far more troubling are allegations involving abuse of young women or minors. Allegations that very young women or girls may have been victimized are crushing. We have not received any direct reports, and we do not have any firsthand knowledge of these allegations.”
For decades, Chavez—who claimed he drew political inspiration from the likes of Niccolò Machiavelli, Adolf Hitler, and especially Mao Zedong—has been hailed as a leftist and progressive icon by Democrat lawmakers. The National Pulse previously reported that former President Joe Biden replaced an Oval Office bust of World War II hero and British leader Sir Winston Churchill with one of Chavez on his first day in office. President Donald J. Trump subsequently restored Churchill’s bust, removing Chavez’s visage from the White House. Also of note, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez, served as Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign manager.
In 2014, then-President Barack Obama proclaimed March 31 as “Cesar Chavez Day,” a federal commemorative holiday celebrating Chavez’s birth and legacy. Two years prior, Obama dedicated the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument at Chavez’s home and former United Farm Workers headquarters in Keene, Kern County, California. It was in this home that Chavez’s private office—where he engaged in the molestations—was located. Additionally, in 2017, Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) introduced a resolution to honor Chavez’s life and legacy—an annual push by Democrats that had occurred during each Congress for the past decade.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, in June last year, moved to begin the process of renaming the USNS Cesar Chavez.
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