An 86-year-old former United Farm Workers organizer has filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Cesar Chavez raped her in her own marital bed in 1973 while his bodyguard stood watch outside her home. The suit, filed under the pseudonym Jane Doe, accuses the UFW Foundation and the Cesar Chavez Foundation of negligence, sexual harassment and civil rights violations for allegedly enabling and covering up the assault.
The complaint, case number 26CUB03446, was filed on September 1 in Kern County Superior Court, according to Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Team, LLP, the firm representing Jane Doe. Attorneys V. James DeSimone and Mike Arias brought the case on behalf of the woman, who worked for Chavez and the UFW as an organizer decades ago. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Jane Doe alleges that Chavez plied her with alcohol at a party he arranged, forcibly pulled her head down to his crotch, and later sent her husband away on union business over her 33rd birthday, before the alleged rape occurred at her home.
Jane Doe also said she once hid from Chavez in a bathroom after rebuffing his advances, and alleges that UFW employees ensured the abuse took place in closed quarters away from others’ visibility. The lawsuit further claims that union staff knew about Chavez’s abuse of women and that the two nonprofits ignored and rebuffed contemporary complaints while working to suppress evidence to protect his public reputation, as outlined by Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Team. Attorney Mike Arias said, per the Los Angeles Times, that Jane Doe left the organization but never lost her fear.
The Alleged Site of the 1973 Assault
The alleged rape took place at Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz in Keene, a 187-acre former tuberculosis sanatorium in Kern County that was bought by a UFW benefactor in 1970, later leased and sold to the UFW, and officially became UFW headquarters in January 1972. According to the National Park Service, the site — commonly called La Paz — was designated a U.S. National Monument in 2012 and now contains 26 historic structures, administrative offices and Chavez’s burial site…