Cesar Chavez abuses the allegations that inspire a movement to impeach the man – without erasing Latino history

Latino allies and admirers of once-revered civil rights leader Cesar Chavez worked quickly to erase his name, likeness and image from memorials and tributes, distancing themselves from shocking allegations that he abused girls and women.

They removed the statue from Fresno State University. They canceled or renamed marches, family celebrations and other events planned for his birthday. They call out his name – or demand that it be removed – from streets, parks and schools, and repaint murals.

But many are still arguing for a way to erase Chavez’s honor as a man without erasing the history of the struggle to improve the lives of Latinos, the second largest ethnic group in the country.

“Thirty years after Cesar Chavez’s death, survivors are saying ‘ya basta,'” or enough is enough, said Sonja Diaz, a California civil rights attorney and activist.

“They are tired of the fact that his name is part of their daily lives and they live, mentally but also physically, in the place where they live, in their communities, a constant reminder,” he said.

Scholars and experts say the challenge of separating Chavez from the cause is exacerbated by the campaign led by the Trump administration to undermine, distort or deny. important parts of the nation’s history, such as slavery and racism, the origins of the Mexican-American War, the recognition of Mexican American and Latino military leaders and efforts to improve racial and economic segregation that are now being eliminated as part of the “awakening” of DEI practices.

Decades after Chavez led the grapevine and labor strikes, some Latinos say they are facing racial tensions amid President Donald Trump’s campaign of mass deportations, including arrests of U.S. citizens and arrests and deportations of immigrants without criminal charges, including asylum seekers.

“Our community is already hurting,” said Delia Garcia, who made history as Kansas’ first female state legislator in 2004 and the state’s first Latina labor secretary in 2019. Chavez’s allegations are “more pain to deal with,” he said.

Garcia said the shocking allegations became public at a time when many Mexican-Americans saw immigration detention tearing families apart, people afraid to leave their homes, immigrants being detained for long periods of time and some dying in immigration detention centers.

The media and others are obsessed with Chavez and the farm workers movement, said Rosie Castro, a Texas civil rights activist who participated in the election of Mexican Americans under the La Raza Unida Party, a political party founded during the Chicano Movement of the 1970s.

But at that time, there were many other people who were working hard to promote human rights, fair wages and all the other issues that were at the heart of the Chicano Movement, said Castro, the mother of Rep. Joaquín Castro, Texas Democrat, and Julián Castro, former US labor secretary and Democratic presidential candidate in 2020.

He tagged the names of Reyes Lopez Tijerina, who fought for the restoration of Mexican-Spanish land in New Mexico, and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, who led the Chicano youth movement for social justice and the La Raza Unida Party.

The veneration of one man in Chavez led to reliance on him as the sole representative of Latino history, particularly the labor rights and civil rights movements, said Mireya Loza, an associate professor of history at Georgetown University and a Bracero Program scholar.

“That’s the reason that causes damage, isn’t it? If the community is allowed to have one population, we take it hard, while the truth is that we have a million and we need to take them all,” said Loza. “We can’t imagine anyone being above looking at their actions and thinking deeply about who they are.”

Chavez was a controversial figure in many ways. There were those who opposed his work and the way he managed the farm workers union and communicated with its workers. Others have criticized his treatment of undocumented workers, who were brought in by farm owners during the strike led by Chavez.

James Garcia, an Arizona journalist and playwright, canceled the September premiere of his play “The Two Souls of Cesar Chavez” following the allegations. The play he wrote illuminated the conflict between Chavez’s human rights work and his problematic personality, documented in books such as “From the Jaws of Victory” and “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez.” Garcia said he was unaware of the sexual harassment allegations before the New York Times published its story this week.

The Times story “exposes Chavez’s history as a monstrous and widespread lie,” Garcia wrote in an opinion piece in the Arizona Mirror.

Garcia originally “set out to write a play about a man, deeply flawed but still worthy of praise for his great human rights achievements,” he said in an editorial note at the bottom of the column. “These new revelations tell a very different story.”

Chavez has become as synonymous with Latino history as Martin Luther King Jr. of Black history, according to Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology, American studies and race at the University of Southern California.

But in both cases, there were many hidden heroes who risked arrest and violence for a greater cause, he said, echoing Castro.

The accusations against Chavez are not a fatal blow but rather “a call to teach our children a difficult history,” said the Teacher.

“We are in a different time right now where there is not so much hero worship,” he said. “The ability to deal with it, at this point in time, is certainly a sign of what women, the feminists, the #MeToo movement has been able to achieve and a sign of social maturity.”

Janet Murguia, president and CEO of UnidosUS, is one of the few women to lead one of the largest historically Latino organizations. Murguia said it will take time for everyone to deal with the “shock and awe” of the allegations against Chavez.

Murguia has led UnidosUS, formerly the National Council of La Raza, for 21 years and said he has been asked a lot recently about finding the next leader.

“I am more convinced than ever that our work will never be about one leader. We must all come together. And you know, it also confirms, for me, that the actions of any one person should not define or diminish the whole community,” he said.

For several days this month, Delia Garcia was at the side of Dolores Huerta, 95, a co-founder with Chavez of the United Farm Workers and one of the most prominent Latina civil rights activists.

Huerta said in a statement on Wednesday that he was forced to sleep with Chavez and that he once raped her. She first revealed her allegations of sexual abuse to the New York Times, which published an investigation into the allegations she and two other women, who said they were 12 and 13 years old when Chavez first molested them. The Times said it relied on interviews with more than 60 people as well as tapes, union minutes and confidential emails. The Times said it could not substantiate Huerta’s allegations.

Some people have been questioning Huerta about changing Chavez’s name to his own on streets or monuments.

Huerta has been suggesting that the names of other farm workers be discredited, Garcia said.

Communities must make the right decisions about who will be honored in Chavez’s place and at the same time fight for any of these gains to be erased.

“Yes, the signs of Chavez are going down – but we will include another Latina leader, Latino, to see them and prevent what they are trying to do,” he said, warning against any government or federal efforts to minimize or distort Latino history following Chavez’s accusations.

Garcia said he was turning to the No. 1 skill he learned from Huerta, his mentor for more than two decades: “plan and make something good come out of this.”