‘I’m mad.’ Close friend of Cesar Chavez, lead organizer of 1966 march, speaks out
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Bustos vows to keep organizing and protect farmworkers on key issues.
- Bustos expresses shock, urges full investigations into Chavez allegations.
- Bustos urges investigations into allegations and stresses focusing on farmworker issues.
Roberto Bustos was making preparations for the annual Cesar Chavez Legacy march in Visalia when he saw the New York Times published an investigation that exposed the late labor icon’s sexual abuse of underage girls and women.
The march in Tulare County — which Bustos had personally promised Chavez he would organize annually as a way to commemorate the farmworker movement — was cancelled. As were hundreds of celebrations in California and across the country scheduled on or near March 31, Chavez’s birthday.
Instead, Bustos, 83, said in an interview with The Bee he is grappling with anger and sadness over the startling allegations against Chavez, a man he considered a close friend before he died in 1993 at age 66.
“I feel mad. I am mad at what is going on,” Bustos said. “It’s sad, and I don’t want that to be affecting what we’ve been doing for farmworkers. We don’t want that.”
Bustos, known as El Capitán, organized the historic 1966 march from Delano to Sacramento and worked with the United Farm Workers union and Chavez for 15 years.
Bustos organized the Cesar Chavez Legacy march in Visalia — which had been scheduled to take place last Saturday before its cancellation — for 31 years. It was part of a personal promise he made to Chavez after they both marched to Sacramento in 1966. He said he promised Chavez he’d continue to organize a march to honor the legacy of the farmworkers’ movement, “so it doesn’t die with us.”
“We worked together. We helped each other. And he did a lot of work. He organized a lot of people, millions of workers. I can’t say nothing bad about him,” Bustos said of Chavez. “And like I said, I didn’t know anything that this was happening. We didn’t know that. Nobody knew that.”
Born in Eloy, Arizona, Bustos worked as a farm laborer in Arizona and California. He first met Chavez in 1965 in Earlimart shortly before Bustos and his brother joined the United Farm Workers union.
Bustos was only 23 years old when Chavez appointed him to lead the organization effort for the first farmworker march from Delano to Sacramento.
“We marched for 25 days. We covered 400 miles. We passed through 53 towns, half of those we spent the night,” Bustos said. “And every town that we were going through, we would have a rally telling people why we were going to Sacramento.”
Bustos said he was shocked by the allegations against Chavez. He had known Chavez for more than 30 years and during that time he never saw Chavez by himself. He was always surrounded by people, security guards, organizers and farmworkers, Bustos said.
“I’ve been close to him for many years, and we worked together for 15 years. I am one of the original strikers,” Bustos said.
Bustos said when he was around Chavez, Chavez was very “respectful to people, to women, to guys to anybody, even to growers.”
Bustos said the farmworker movement is bigger than Chavez.
“We all know, it’s not a one-man show type of thing. It’s a group of people, and a lot of people,” Bustos said.
The Latino leader, now retired and living in Tulare, said the Cesar Chavez Legacy march committee, which he chairs, decided to postpone the Visalia event.
The march will return, he said, though it will no longer bear Chavez’s name. Rather, it will be rebranded as a “Farmworkers for Justice” march.
“We are going to continue. We’re going to organize more. We’re going to protect our farmworkers, the ones that feed us,” Bustos said. “We’re going to continue the work.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 7:05 PM.
