The Times was following up with Ms. Huerta, who was a longtime professional associate of Chavez, for any comments she may have regarding a story it was planning to publish alleging that the UFW president had abused numerous young women and girls and had fathered four children out of wedlock with three different women. Instead, she offered her own bombshell about Chavez to the Times.

This explains why the UFW had abruptly canceled events this week honoring Chavez, citing only "recent and troubling allegations" concerning its late president (who had co-sounded the union with Ms. Huerta) but otherwise providing no further details.

To put it mildly, these are just stunning revelations, which are certain to rock the labor movement in California, where Cesar Chavez is a towering (albeit increasingly controversial) figure and the state legislature had fairly recently declared his birthday a state holiday. Dolores Huerta, who's now 95, is an equally beloved figure in her own right in that same movement, and there is absolutely no reason to believe she made this story up.