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June 19, 2026 
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After watching a documentary at school about farmworkers being beaten on picket lines, Anita Romero Torres had one dream: to join Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers labor union. In 1977, at age 17, she arrived at the union’s La Paz headquarters in the California mountains. But within weeks, she began to grow fearful — not of agitators on the picket lines, but of the men she worked with.
A New York Times investigation uncovered substantial evidence this year that Chavez, a key figure in America’s civil rights history, sexually abused young teenage girls and engaged in other sexual misconduct over a period of decades. The revelations led to a reckoning, with communities across the country canceling events, removing statues and re-examining artwork celebrating Chavez.
But the abuse did not begin or end with Chavez, according to new interviews and documents. Many other women faced devastating sexual assault and harassment from men they worked with — including senior managers. This abuse occurred even as the women helped organize the marches, boycotts and membership campaigns that laid the groundwork for the Latino civil rights drive in the United States.
