Part of reclaiming the true history of the farmworkers movement means being willing to sit with its most difficult chapters. A recent article, "Power and Abuse in the United Farm Workers," offers exactly that kind of unflinching account we feel that it is essential reading for anyone committed to organizing done right.
The piece takes as its starting point the 2026 New York Times report in which two women, Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, came forward with allegations that Cesar Chavez sexually abused them as girls at the UFW's La Paz headquarters. But the author's central argument reaches beyond any single person: this abuse, they contend, cannot be understood as the failing of one charismatic leader alone. It unfolded within a patterned system of organizational control.
Let’s not forget the UFW's genuine achievements. The union brought water and toilets to the fields, helped ban the short-handled hoe, and won the first agricultural labor contracts in the country. It was also, from its earliest days, a coalition built when the Filipino-led Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the Mexican American National Farm Workers Association refused to cross each other's picket lines and joined forces. That multiracial foundation is central to the history we work to honor.
The author closes with a lesson meant for organizers today: structure and sacrifice are indispensable to any movement, but they can also insulate leaders from accountability. The call is for democratic governance, transparent decision-making, rotating leadership, and independent grievance procedures and for movements to center, but never sacralize, the vulnerable.
Why we're sharing this: This forum exists to tell the fuller, more honest story of the farmworkers movement. A movement built by many communities and many leaders. That work includes celebrating its triumphs and reckoning with its harms. Honoring the countless farmworkers who sacrificed for La Causa means refusing to let any single figure's mythology stand in for their collective struggle.