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:
Chavez is known for his early organizing in the fields, a hunger strike, a grape boycott and eventual victory in getting growers to negotiate with farmworkers for better wages and working conditions.
Born in Yuma, Arizona, Chavez grew up in a Mexican American family that traveled around California picking lettuce, grapes, cotton and other seasonal crops.
Chavez protested poor pay and often-miserable working conditions. There were no toilets in the fields for workers and they had to weed fields with short-handled hoes that forced them to bend over for hours at a time.
The farmworker movement lifted worker wages, banned short-handed hoes and established state-mandated clean drinking water and restrooms in the fields, according to a National Park Service document supporting the creation of a national monument in Chavez's honor.
In 1966, he led a march that started with a few activists in Delano, California, and ended in Sacramento with 10,000 people, according to Obama's 2014 proclamation. Some 17 million people joined a boycott of grapes, which forced growers to accept some of the first farmworker contracts in history, the proclamation said.
Chavez began the first credit union for farmworkers, health clinics, daycare centers and job-training programs, the Cesar Chavez Foundation said on its website.
“He was, for his own people, a Moses figure,” then-President Bill Clinton said in 1994 when posthumously awarding Chavez the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Chavez died the year before in California at age 66.
The labor and civil rights leader secured higher wages, health benefits, pensions and pesticide protections for farmworkers during her decades of organizing and advocacy on their behalf.
Now 95, Huerta helped organize the 1965 Delano strike of 5,000 grape workers and was the lead negotiator in the workers contract that followed, according to the National Women’s History Museum.
A single mother, Huerta gave up a stable teaching career to organize. She was jailed over 20 times for protests and seriously injured in 1988 while demonstrating. She later championed women’s rights, encouraged Latinas to run for office and founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation to combat discrimination, poverty and inequality.
She coined the iconic slogan “Sí, se puede” — meaning “Yes, we can” -- in 1972 while rallying Arizona farmworkers against a law banning boycotts and strikes. She defied claims it was impossible to organize there.
Huerta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 and in 1993 became the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan and Fernanda Figueroa contributed to this report.
A sign for SE César E Chávez Boulevard is seen on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
FILE - United Farm Workers leader Dolores Huerta, center, leads a rally in San Francisco's Mission District on Nov. 19, 1988, along with Howard Wallace, president of the San Francisco chapter of the UFW, left, and Maria Elena Chavez, 16, the daughter of Cesar Chavez, right, as part of a national boycott of what the UFW claims is the dangerous use of pesticides on table grapes. (AP Photo/Court Mast, File)
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)
Many of the upcoming celebrations and holidays honoring the late farmworker labor leader César Chavez are being renamed, postponed or completely canceled in the wake of allegations that he sexually abused women and girls while at the helm of the United Farm Workers Union.
Labor rights activist Dolores Huerta revealed this week she was among those who say they were abused by Chavez, who died more than three decades ago.
The allegations have prompted swift fallout, including from the United Farm Workers, which announced it would not take part in any events named after the organization's former leader.
Several states recognize a day on or near Chavez's March 31 birthday as an annual holiday, including California, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas, Utah and Washington. In 2014, President Barack Obama signed a proclamation designating March 31 as César Chavez Day. The day isn't a paid holiday for federal workers, however — it's a commemorative observance.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that his state would not observe the holiday this year, and that he was directing all state agency heads to comply with the change. Abbott also said he would work with legislators to remove the holiday from state law.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has declined to recognize March 31 as César Chavez Day as she has in the two prior years, said Liliana Soto, a spokesperson for Hobbs. While it is not a state holiday, some Arizona municipalities recognize it, closing schools or government offices.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said he was still “processing” the news and wouldn’t commit to making any changes to the state holiday.
The city of Lansing, Michigan, canceled its Legacy of César Chavez Dinner on March 25. The featured speaker was scheduled to be granddaughter Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who was campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“We remain committed to honoring the Latino community, and the service, dignity, and rights of farmworkers. We will be working on further events and celebrations in the future,” the city said.
The city of Milwaukee also canceled its annual celebration.
The Coconino County Hispanic Advisory Council in Arizona postponed an annual César E. Chavez Community Breakfast, with plans to reschedule it to focus on the contributions and achievements of Hispanic residents in the county.
San Jose, the largest city in Northern California, is canceling its César Chavez celebration, the mayor announced Wednesday morning. Matt Mahan said the city would identify ways to honor the legacy of the farmworker movement without celebrating “individuals who caused such profound harm to the community.”
The Hispanic Advocates and Business Leaders of Austin, Texas, announced that an annual march honoring Chavez set for March 28 would no longer take place. Several Austin city leaders also announced that they support the renaming of César Chavez Street.
The César Chavez Peace and Justice Committee of Denver canceled a celebration set for April 11.
Officials at the AFL-CIO said the allegations came as a shock and that the federation of unions would not participate or endorse any activities for César Chavez Day.
“Our thoughts are first and foremost with any victims of assault and abuse who have described experiencing what no one — especially children — should ever have to survive,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler and secretary-treasurer Fred Redmond said in a statement. “No legacy can excuse it.”
The organization continues to support farmworkers and said the rights they have won “cannot be erased by the horrific actions of one person.”
Dozens of schools, streets and other locations across the United States are named for Chavez, including the César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, California.
Dennis Arguelles, the director of the National Parks Conservation Association in Southern California, said renaming the national monument would require an act of Congress. He said the national park site should continue to honor the farmworker movement and leaders who fought for dignity, better working conditions and fair wages.
The Lubbock Democratic Party in Texas on Wednesday called on city leaders to rename César Chavez Drive to honor Dolores Huerta.
In Wisconsin, Milwaukee City Alderperson JoCasta Zamarripa said discussions will begin soon on what to do about a street named after Chavez.
Portland, Oregon, city councilor Candace Avalos said she would start a petition to rename a city boulevard after Huerta. City rules require 2,500 signatures to start a renaming effort, Avalos wrote on social media, urging her constituents to stay tuned for ways to help with the effort.
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat, issued a statement Wednesday saying abuse of any kind, especially against children, is indefensible and a betrayal of the values that Latino leaders have championed for generations.
A statute of César Chavez stands in the middle of a plaza at Cesar Chavez Park, honoring the United Farm Workers union founder, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Laveen, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Books about Cesar Chavez are seen on a library shelf at San Lorenzo High School Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in San Lorenzo, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
A pedestrian walks below an image of César Chavez on a mural in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A pedestrian walks below a César Chavez Street sign in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Pedestrians walk below an image of César Chavez on a mural in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
