As explosive allegations of sexual abuse against Cesar Chavez surfaced this week, celebrations honoring the labor leader began unraveling across the Bay Area and beyond.
The claims, detailed in a New York Times investigation published Wednesday, include accusations from two women — Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas — who said Chavez sexually abused them as children in the 1970s, while he lead the United Farm Workers. The women said they were 13 and 15 at the time of the alleged abuse, according to the report.
The women, both now in their 60s, said the abuse occurred between roughly 1972 and 1977, when Chavez was in his 40s and at the height of his influence. The Times reported it found evidence supporting their accounts and those of several other women…