Note: This story contains a conversation about sexual assault. If you or someone you know may be a victim of sexual assault, confidential support, information and advice are available at the National Sexual Assault Hotline by calling 800-656-4673. Text chat is also available online.

This week, an investigation by The New York Times uncovered a trail of sexual abuse allegations against civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, including from two woman who were young girls at the time of their abuse.

This news has sent shockwaves across the country, including here in Oregon.

Reyna Lopez is the Executive Director of Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, Oregon’s largest farmworker union. She joined “All Things Considered” host Crystal Ligori to discuss the history of PCUN, the impact the Chavez allegations have locally, and the push for gender equality in movement spaces.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Crystal Ligori: For folks who are unfamiliar with PCUN, can you give us a little history of the union and its connection to the larger Latino labor movement in the U.S.?

Reyna Lopez: The story goes that 80 farmworkers started PCUN who were very fed up with the conditions back then.

And even before that, back in 1977, undocumented workers who were targeted by INS — very similar to some of the ICE raids we’re seeing today — actually came through the Willamette Valley Immigration Project, which was founded to provide legal representation for many of these workers, and many of those workers that came out of that work as well, founded PCUN in 1985.

That’s how we became one of Oregon’s first unions to represent farmworkers. And to this day, we continue to ensure that all workers, whether they are farmworkers, immigrant workers, Latinx workers … that they’re fairly represented in the workforce.

Ligori: Reyna, what was your personal reaction yesterday when you heard this news and what has been the community’s response?

Lopez: It really hit me hard, to be honest. I was sad. I was disappointed. I was angry. I felt the feeling in my bones. I felt foggy in my head. My chest felt like it was going to literally rip out of my body.

And I also had to be the one to bring my teams together, bring other executive directors together, and bring organizations together to talk about this and to really process it.

And I could see it in everybody how disappointing this was, how someone who many of us really looked up to, that image was completely shattered.

I could see it in many people’s faces, just, “How could this be?” … people sending me messages, people who aren’t in the farmworker movement, or have been allies of the farmworker movement, just expressing how sad they were about the whole thing and how devastated they were to hear that this was something that was happening for so long.

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Ligori: I think it’s worth mentioning the co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association, Dolores Huerta, was also one of those abused by Chavez. She said one of the reasons that she stayed silent for so long was the worry that it would negatively affect the movement. Do you worry about this impacting the incredible work that PCUN and others have done?

Lopez: When I read the article from Dolores Huerta, who is also a mentor to me, I was heartbroken. And I just know as a woman and as a person who has also been impacted by sexual violence, that feeling of having to hold something for so long and finally being able to say it out loud.

I am just so proud of her, proud of the courage that it took to be able to tell that story. The recognition of all of the contributions that she has made to the farmworker movement.

Historically, women had not received the credit that they deserved, even though our movement’s taken great strides to better support women, we still have more work to do to achieve true gender justice. It is only when we start to truly walk-and-talk these values that we can really bring real justice into the movement.

I was the first woman president of the farmworker union here in Oregon and that was a big undertaking from my predecessors where it was also seen that many women in Oregon who had taken on so much, that had worked behind the scenes to make all of these organizing campaigns happen, had never really been given that opportunity. So this hits really, really close to home for me.

Today, the United Farm Workers is run by President Teresa Romero, and as we have processed this together, thinking about “how do we continue to make improvements to the movement that don’t just stop there?” That’s not just like “now we have two women presidents of farm worker unions,” but how do we truly change systems that will create true gender justice for our communities?

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Ligori: Speaking to this, the movement is so much bigger than one person and belongs to the tens of thousands of people in it. Many like Huerta who were women. As a woman organizer, how do you think about creating movement spaces that don’t just put a single person on a pedestal?

Lopez: Absolutely. And after I read that New York Times article, what really hit me hard was hearing one of the survivors say that “the hero has always been the movement.” It was never Cesar Chavez. The fight for representation and equality for farmworkers, it goes beyond him. It was a result of decades and many sacrifices, many farmworkers who put their bodies on the line.

I think a lot about systems of oppression and what is the movement that we’re trying to build today. And for me and many other leaders, our commitment is being tested. And I want to challenge us all to use this as an opportunity to not shy away from how women and children, girls have been treated in our society, but to really step up, especially as women leaders, to be able to really build the movement that our communities deserve.

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Ligori: There have been calls to remove Cesar Chavez’s name from schools and street names and institutions across the state. Do you think that’s enough, or is there something more to do?

Lopez: I do think that we do need to do more than just remove names.

Just because you take one person out of the picture, it doesn’t mean that they’ve ended, because I’ve been in this work for now 15 years, and there have been multiple leaders that I worked under — men that were accused of things and that we also had to remove — but it didn’t change the fact that I was living in a society that was still viewing me as a woman, as an object. Or as a sexualized figure.

And these are really important things that as a society, we’re going to have to grapple with. We have an opportunity here to really face this thing head on, and it’s something that I am calling on myself and the entire farmworker movement to take on that challenge.

PCUN is very supportive of the United Farm Workers’ path to searching for truth and accountability and reconciliation. I think it’s really important, especially as an organization and the Cesar Chavez organization too, that they’re really stewarding this moment in a very responsible way.

And that we also urge communities that are also going to be entering a process to center healing, reconciliation, and the overall fight for worker justice and how we respond in this moment.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/19/reyna-lopez-farmworker-movement-gender-justice/