César Chávez Was Married for 45 Years — What We Know About His Wife, Helen Fabula

Content warning: This article mentions sexual assault.

American labor activist César Chávez, who served as a folk hero and a symbol of hope for working Americans, has been accused of grooming and sexually assaulting multiple women and minors. In a New York Times investigation, women came forward to say that Chávez sexually abused them for years, sometimes starting at age 12 or 13. The investigation found evidence to support these claims.

The New York Times article also said that Chávez had at least four children with three women outside his marriage, including fellow organizer Dolores Huerta, who alleges that Chávez raped her twice.

After this shocking revelation, many are taking a second look at Chávez's family life. Here's what we know about his late wife, Helen Fabela, who supported the family so that César could do activist work.

César and Helen met when they were teens, but they didn't get married until César returned from service in the U.S. Navy. When they married, César was 21, and Helen was 20. Helen and César were married for 45 years, until César's death in 1993. They had eight children and 31 grandchildren.

Helen was a first-generation Mexican American born in Brawley, California. Her parents and César's parents immigrated to the United States separately after the Mexican Revolution. Helen began working in fields at age 7.

Helen and César's son, Paul, spoke with KCRA 3 about his mother, saying that she was by César's side since the beginning. "My mother never stood behind my father; she was by his side, and sometimes out in front," he said. Paul said that his mother took part in the decision to organize farm workers.

"She talked about living the indignities that farm workers suffered back then, and continue to suffer, and she had a score to settle, along with my father, to try to make things right," Paul added. Helen went back to working in the fields to support the family financially while César organized the union.

"She would get up early and make lunch for us kids, and she would take off and go picket the fields for a while. She'd come back and get us off to school, and she ran the farm workers' credit union," Paul shared.

They are asking for "fairness and privacy" while they process the surprising and difficult information that surfaced from the New York Times investigation, per KTVU News. The family said, in a statement, that they hope people remember César's "larger legacy."

"As family members, we also carry our own memories of the person we knew ... Someone whose life included work and contributions that matter deeply to many people," the statement said.

"As a family steeped in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse," they said, adding, "This is deeply painful to our family." They wrote that they would be open to the responses of others while holding "cherished memories" of their father.