Another woman has claimed she was sexually assaulted by now-disgraced labor movement icon Cesar Chavez.
Jennifer Andrea Porras alleges that in the 1990s, when Chavez was in his 60s, he made unwanted advances toward her — kissing and touching her without consent — when she was just 18 and working as a field organizer at the United Farm Workers headquarters in Keene, according to her account in the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión.
When the now-53-year-old threatened to expose him, she says she was pressured and issued threats, including against her family.
Porras, a Bay Area local, said she decided to come forward after three women — including labor movement icon Dolores Huerta — revealed in the New York Times they suffered years of abuse under Chavez.
The investigation included detailed accounts from the women, two of whom said they were children when he began sexually abusing them.
Ana Murguia claimed the abuse started when she was just 13, while Debra Rojas said she was first assaulted at 12 and later raped at 15.
Both women described a pattern of grooming that began when they were as young as eight or nine.
“I didn’t know what the word ‘grooming’ was,” Rojas said last month, adding she was a virgin at the time of her rape. “It’s like you’re mesmerized.”
In the immediate aftermath, California lawmakers voted to officially strip his name from the state’s calendar and rebrand it as Farmworkers Day.
Initially, Cesar Chavez Day, celebrated on March 31, remains a legal holiday and a paid day off for state employees.
Chavez has been lauded by the left across America for decades, with Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden celebrating him. Biden had a bust of him in the Oval Office during his presidency.
The investigation drew on interviews with more than 60 named and unnamed sources, including former aides, family members and union insiders, to corroborate allegations spanning decades.
Among them were Cynthia Bell and her daughter Esmeralda Lopez, who described a later encounter that adds to the pattern of alleged misconduct surrounding Chavez.
Lopez said she was 19 when Chavez allegedly made an unwanted advance during a work trip, suggesting he could use his influence to benefit her if she agreed to a sexual relationship. She rejected him and said he did not pursue it further.
“It makes you rethink in history all those heroes,” she said. “The movement — that’s the hero.”
Chavez, who spent most of his life in California, died on April 21, 1993, and has had nearly 50 schools at least partially named after him, as well as roads, monuments and murals.
Now, statues are coming down, street names are being stripped, and murals are being covered up in a rapid-fire backlash against the once-revered labor leader.
Several efforts have targeted Chavez’s legacy, including the removal of statues in San Fernando and at Fresno State, the covering of murals at Santa Ana College, and a proposal to rename San Diego’s César Chávez Parkway, while other removals are also underway.
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