VIDEO: Speaker Rivas Honors Survivors, Dolores Huerta in Announcing California Farmworkers Day

• Nick Miller
• Communications Director
• 916-319-2029
• [email protected]

SACRAMENTO - On Thursday, Speaker Robert Rivas delivered the following speech in the California State Assembly chamber, honoring courageous survivors and Dolores Huerta, and announcing legislation to designate Farmworkers Day as a state holiday.

Read Speaker Rivas' full remarks:

I rise this morning to honor the women who have bravely come forward to share their stories of sexual abuse by Cesar Chavez - stories that are painful, disturbing and long overdue to be heard.

As someone who grew up in the farmworker movement. As the son and
grandson of farmworkers. As a father. And as a Latino:

I am shocked.

I am angry.

And I am deeply disappointed.

The fact that many of these women were children when they were abused makes this even more heartbreaking.

But today - above all - we recognize their courage.

Because speaking the truth, especially after so many years, takes extraordinary strength.

And to those women I want to say clearly:

We hear you.

We believe you.

And we stand with you.

Dolores Huerta has also spoken out about the abuse she suffered.

I have had the privilege of knowing Dolores my whole life. She worked alongside my grandfather to secure the first labor contract at Almaden Vineyards in the 1960s.

Her resilience is already legendary and what she has revealed only deepens my respect for her great strength.

But let me be clear about something: The farmworker movement was never about one man.

It was built by thousands - tens of thousands - of workers. People like my grandfather. People who labored in the fields. People who organized, who sacrificed, who stood up when it was hard.

Their legacy is not defined by one individual.

It is defined by a movement - a movement for dignity, a movement for justice, a movement that still lives on today.

And now we have a responsibility not just to remember that movement, but to carry it forward with integrity.

That is why we will be introducing legislation to rename Cesar Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day.

Because this moment calls for honesty. It calls for reflection, and it calls for a renewed commitment to the values that the farmworker movement was built on.

So today, we stand with survivors. And let us recommit ourselves to justice, to dignity and to the people who built the farmworker movement.

Thank you.