The Shame of Cesar Chavez |
The Shame of Cesar Chavez
We shouldn’t forget the reasons he has come to be revered, but his legacy was tarnished long before this.
There are 27 elementary and high schools named after Cesar Chavez in California, nine in Texas, and three each in Arizona and New Mexico. The New York Times put them in a quandary March 18 by reporting that Chavez sexually molested two minors, from the ages of 12 and 13, and that he raped his longtime aide-de-camp, Dolores Huerta. Now America has to figure out what to do on Cesar Chavez Day this March 31 and, more broadly, how to think about his legacy. This task is complicated by the fact that Chavez’s legacy and his life’s achievement have been out of alignment for some time.
The facts laid out in the Times piece are unchallengeable and grim. The 12-year-old, Debra Rojas, wrote Chavez: “I think of you all the time. Do you think of me?” Three years later, Rojas had sexual intercourse with Chavez in a motel, a clear violation of California’s statutory rape law. Had this been reported, Chavez might easily have spent several years in prison. The 13-year-old, Ana Murguia, continued to have sexual encounters with Chavez (never intercourse) until she turned 17, by which time she’d tried to kill herself “multiple times.”
Huerta, now 96, confirmed to the Times that she had two traumatic sexual encounters with Chavez. In one, she wrote Wednesday on Facebook, she felt “manipulated and pressured” because Chavez was “my boss.” The other encounter was an unambiguous rape (“forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped”). That too could have landed Chavez in prison. In both instances, Huerta became pregnant with children whose paternity remained a secret until now.
The two organizations most associated with Chavez, the United Farm Workers, or UFW (which he created with Huerta) and the Cesar Chavez Foundation, do not dispute the allegations. The UFW Foundation called them “shocking” and “indefensible,” and canceled its annual Cesar Chavez Day celebrations. The Cesar Chavez Foundation said it was “deeply shocked and saddened.” But neither group seemed wildly surprised.........