00:00Dolores Huerta died on Wednesday at the age of 96. Born in New Mexico to a working-class family,
00:06she was one of the most important leaders in the American labor movement. She co-founded what became
00:11the United Farm Workers, and she was an early feminist speaking out for women within the labor
00:16movement in a time when it was still unfashionable to do so. Politicians on the left would often seek
00:22her endorsement, and Democrats running for office wanted to have her on the campaign trail whenever
00:26they could. Well into her 90s, she was very politically active. But she was active in a
00:32different way in the last months of her life. In March, she admitted to the New York Times that
00:37her fellow labor union leader, Cesar Chavez, had carried out a pattern of misconduct against women
00:43and girls for many years within the labor movement, and that she herself had been raped twice by Chavez.
00:49In each case, the rape had led to a pregnancy. She had carried the baby to term, delivered, and left
00:54the baby with other families to be raised as part of an effort to cover up what Chavez was doing.
01:00She admitted that she had kept silent for 60 years because she had not wanted to hurt the movement.
01:05As soon as Huerta made her admissions, there was really no sense in defending Chavez, and his name
01:11began to come down from buildings, from streets, from schools. Public holidays were renamed. His legend
01:17simply disappeared overnight. It was an incredibly brave thing she had done, even if she had been silent
01:23for so long, which is something that's very difficult to judge her for doing. Huerta will continue to be
01:28a towering figure in the history of American labor and on the political left, and many of the people
01:34who loved and admired her will take comfort in the fact that she was able to speak her full truth
01:39before she passed away.
