Per LA Times investigation: Cesar Chavez raped underage girls

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Cesar Chavez, the iconic labor leader, is accused of sexually assaulting two under-aged girls in the 1970s as well as fellow farmworker leader Dolores Huerta in the 1960s, according to an investigation from the New York Times.

The newspaper interviewed two woman who said they were sexually abused by Chavez — one repeatedly — when they were children.

"Both women have struggled with depression, panic attacks and substance abuse in the years since. They maintained their silence for decades, fearing speaking out would tarnish Mr. Chavez’s legacy, but decided in recent months, after being approached by reporters, that their stories also counted," The Times reported.

Huerta told the paper she was raped by Chavez 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 Times reported.

In an Instagram post, Huerta said for the last 60 years she's kept this secret because, "I believed exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for."

Huerta said she experienced two separate sexual encounters with Chavez, the first time she was, "manipulated and pressured into having sex with him," and felt she couldn't say anything because he was her boss and the leader "of a movement she devoted her life to."

"The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped," her statement said. "I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret."

Huerta became pregnant from both sexual encounters and after the children were born she arranged for them to be raised by other families.

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