César Chavez and Dolores Huerta led a movement that won better wages and conditions for farmworkers

Refurbished statues of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta is seen at the studio of Napa artist and sculptor Mario Chiodo, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat) 2026-03-19T03:31:20Z Dolores Huerta and the late César Chavez are both labor rights icons credited with leading a movement that pushed growers to negotiate for better wages and working conditions for farmworkers. Their legacies are getting new attention after allegations emerged that Chavez, who died in 1993, sexually abused Huerta and other women and girls. Several celebrations honoring Chavez planned around the country for later this month have been canceled . Chavez and Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, which became the United Farm Workers of America a few years later when it merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. The rise of the movement is one of the most important events in U.S. history and is the most important event in U.S. Latino history, said Paul Ortiz, a Cornell University labor history professor. United Farm Workers made the most important sustained changes in the working conditions of agricultural workers in the nation’s history, he said. Agricultural workers “from Hawaii to Florida to New York to Southern California had tried to organize to improve their wages and working conditions, literally for centuries, going back to slavery times,” Ortiz said. “And almost every effort failed, some catastrophically.” Chavez and Huerta are credited with efforts that prompted California to pass the first state law recognizing farmworkers’ right to collective bargaining. Both have streets and schools named after them. Several states have designated March 31, Chavez’s birthday, as a day to commemorate him, and former President Barack Obama declared it a federal commemorative holiday in 2014. Here’s a look at their lives and legacies: César Chavez Chavez is known for his early organizing in the fields , a hunger strike, a grape boycott and eve

原文链接: AP News