STOCKTON, Calif. — A longtime farmworker advocate who worked alongside Cesar Chavez says new allegations against the labor leader are shaking the Latino community and raising questions about who may have known.
Luis Magaña, who met Chavez in 1974 at about 18 years old, working with him during a tomato worker strike that extended into Sacramento County and Yolo. He later joined Chavez in a 1985 strike against a local grocery store and remained active in farmworker advocacy for decades.
“Cesar Chavez was always surrounded by people,” Magaña said. “That would include farm workers who would take turns protecting him, and he would be surrounded by a group of people he trusted. He was never alone, and everyone knew that.”…