Power and Abuse in the United Farm Workers

In the mid-1970s, Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas were middle school girls carrying a dark and painful secret: Cesar Chavez, the revered union leader and civil rights hero, was molesting and raping them. Worse still, this abuse was happening in plain sight at the La Paz headquarters of the United Farm Workers (UFW). Tucked away in the isolated Tehachapi Mountains of California, La Paz was home to the main union office and intentional community Chavez hoped to build for the farmworker cause. Countless idealists and organizers congregated there to strategize and implement their grand visions for a more equitable world. But La Paz was also the place where staff, volunteers, and bodyguards caught glimpses of the abuse Chavez was willing to impose on young girls. They were there when Murguia and Rojas walked toward Chavez's office to spend an inexplicable amount of time alone with him. Some of them were there when Chavez insisted that a young girl ride in his private car, join him on press and fundraising tours, and enter his motel room alone. But seemingly no one questioned or objected to these practices.