The farmworker movement continues, despite the shocking sexual abuse revelations (with minors as well as adult women) made public today in the New York Times.
FOR THE ILLUSTRATED VERSION OF THIS POST, visit https://organicwineuncorked.substack.com/p/international-mothers-day-march-8
It is hard for the world to process the shocking news that Cesar Chavez abused and raped underage girls as well as adult women, including his fellow farmworker organizer Delores Huerta, who is about to turn 96 in June and only now breaking her silence.
You can read the full story in the New York Times (gift article link here). (see https://organicwineuncorked.substack.com/p/international-mothers-day-march-8)
This wasn’t the first time such facts surfaced. For anyone who read or listened to Miriam Pawel’s critically acclaimed biography, The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, there were hints of sexual misconduct (and other misconduct). But none were as definitive as that testified to today by the two women who were under age when Chavez raped them.
In honor of International Women’s Day and these historic revelations, several artists posted loving portraits of Huerta, which I am sharing here. See more from the talented artists on their instagram feeds.
@artbyannaalvarado
And another here:
@thedesigningchica
These images are so heartfelt and uplifting. One can only hope overdue changes heal all involved. In keeping with Giselle Pelicot’s revelations and trial, and the Epstein victims crusades to open the files, abuse is coming out of the shadows and into the light.
Renamings to Come?
Fresno State decided to cover up the monument of Chavez
As for the streets named for Chavez and the national monument created in his name at the former United Farm Workers (UFW) headquarters in 2012, it will be interesting to see how advocates wish to revise and refine historical storytelling.
Here’s an Instagram post (fictitious) hypothesizing changes, since it would be simple to insert Huerta’s name for Chavez’s.
Fresno State took this approach – covering the statue on campus.
The National Monument
I visited the national monument in 2014. It was a long drive from the Bay Area and I was on my way east to New Mexico. I listened to an audiobook version (no longer available - I have no idea why because it was quite good) on the journey to Kern County on the way and was impressed with the book which revealed so much of Chavez’s dark side and many political compromises from his early days and on into later stages of the movement. Still I’d drunk the koolaid.
At the monument I bought a commemorative water bottle with his name on it. Who knew how bad it would get more than a decade later?
I wanted to recommend that audiobook to you but I guess I can’t, but I CAN recommend the book itself.
Here’s the publishers’ description.
Author Miriam Pawel
The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist Winner of the California Book Award A searching portrait of an iconic figure long shrouded in myth by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of an acclaimed history of Chavez’s movement. Cesar Chavez founded a labor union, launched a movement, and inspired a generation. He rose from migrant worker to national icon, becoming one of the great charismatic leaders of the 20th century. Two decades after his death, Chavez remains the most significant Latino leader in US history. Yet his life story has been told only in hagiography-until now. In the first comprehensive biography of Chavez, Miriam Pawel offers a searching yet empathetic portrayal. Chavez emerges here as a visionary figure with tragic flaws; a brilliant strategist who sometimes stumbled; and a canny, streetwise organizer whose pragmatism was often at odds with his elusive, soaring dreams. He was an experimental thinker with eclectic passions-an avid, self-educated historian and a disciple of Gandhian non-violent protest. Drawing on thousands of documents and scores of interviews, this superbly written life deepens our understanding of one of Chavez’s most salient qualities: his profound humanity. Pawel traces Chavez’s remarkable career as he conceived strategies that empowered the poor and vanquished California’s powerful agriculture industry, and his later shift from inspirational leadership to a cult of personality, with tragic consequences for the union he had built. The Crusades of Cesar Chavez reveals how this most unlikely American hero ignited one of the great social movements of our time.
I’d be curious to hear what Pawel’s reaction is to the current revelations.
For now, we can settle for an interview with her from the initial publication of the book. Early on, he sacrificed truth for myth making, as she documented in great detail. Like so many others, he was complicated.
Miriam Pawel "The Crusades of Cesar Chavez"
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