Dolores Huerta, who died Wednesday at the age of 96, will always be remembered as a towering figure in the history of the American labor movement. But she will also be remembered for exposing the abusive behavior of Cesar Chavez. 

Earlier this year — just months before she died — Huerta told the New York Times that Chavez had raped her, twice. On both occasions, the rapes led to pregnancies. Huerta delivered the babies, and hid them with other families.

That is the extent to which the labor movement was prepared to go to cover up Chavez’s behavior — and Huerta regretted it.

In a statement, Huerta said that Chavez was known to have abused women — and even children. 

She admitted that she had kept silent for 60 years, because “I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”

The movement came first — even if that meant that other women and children might be victimized.

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In the end, that was a moral burden Huerta could no longer bear. 

It is difficult to judge Huerta for her long silence — especially as she was a victim of sexual violence. She also had children to protect.

But others who had not suffered directly also knew, and they said nothing.

That was why the labor movement never pushed back against the allegations, and why Chavez’s name was removed almost instantly from schools, roads, and even public holidays.

They knew. Huerta’s brave, belated revelation forced them, finally, to act.

It is worth remembering just how important Chavez had been — not just to farmworkers and labor organizers, but to the Democratic Party.

The Obama administration named a naval vessel after Chavez. President Joe Biden put a bust of Chavez in the Oval Office as a gesture of Hispanic solidarity.

Unions made Chavez into a hero on par with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A cult of personality developed around him. He became a central figure in the Chicano cultural movement, and was at the core of the “ethnic studies” curriculum that activists have been imposing on California classrooms.

To go against Chavez, or even to question the legends spun around him meant to oppose some of the most powerful political forces in California and in the Democratic Party.

It took courage — even for someone with the credibility that Huerta enjoyed on the left — to admit the truth. It’s possible that only she could have done it. Anyone else would have had their motives questioned.

Huerta will remain a widely admired figure, for many reasons. She was one of the early leaders of the effort to organize farmworkers. She was also one of the first prominent Hispanic leaders. She was also a feminist who put women’s issues front and center before it was fashionable.

Those who loved her and who will miss her can take comfort in the fact that she was able to speak her truth — the whole truth — before leaving this world, and before it was too late.