The Moral Failings of Men
They say you should never meet your heroes.
We need to amend that. Instead, what we really need to say is never trust men in power.
Throughout American history, we've seen some of our most revered individuals act in grossly inappropriate ways. From Thomas Jefferson impregnating Sally Hemings to Martin Luther King, Jr. being a serial adulterer, to Bill Clinton and the infamous blue dress, there have been countless prominent individuals engaged in wildly inappropriate behavior that undercuts their political messaging. The men in question made conscious decisions to engage in these illicit behaviors; they were not forced on them in any way. Instead, these men abused their positions of power to take advantage of younger admirers who felt that denying them would hurt them and their long-term prospects in the work. These women were not "asking for it" as conservatives would have you believe. Instead, they were taken advantage of, sometimes violently, by men they knew and trusted. In the moment, there was no choice. These women had to do what these powerful men asked of them or risk facing the consequences.
Wednesday's revelations regarding Cesar Chavez hurt. As a teacher who began a Cesar Chavez Service Club during my time in San Diego, I was able to make connections and build relationships with some of Chavez's closest allies. The service clubs offer young men and women of color a unique opportunity to learn the values that led Cesar to found the UFW. In bringing one to the school I worked at, the hope was that a new generation of students could learn these values and put them into practice through community service. At the annual breakfast, the keynote speaker was a man named Mo Jourdane. Jourdane fought tirelessly to ban the short-handled hoe, a tool that led to debilitating injuries for numerous farmworkers throughout the country. Having the students hear these stories and see Chavez's values in action was a worthwhile endeavour that I will never regret. All the clubs countywide were invested this way, and it's an organization I will continue to support until my dying days.
For all the positives of Cesar Chavez, from his work with the UFW to the service clubs that bear his name, there was a deeper, darker chapter that we are just now beginning to understand. Chavez was a hero, a modern-day Gandhi for the Latino people. His oratory and organizing skills are still studied to this day in social justice circles. But behind the scenes, Cesar Chavez was a deeply flawed man. Chavez's ego frequently got in the way of his work and essentially forced him out of the UFW in his later years. He was an absentee father who had a strained relationship with several of his children. Yesterday's bombshell report reveals a Chavez who was well-aware of his growing celebrity status and one who used the power it afforded him to manipulate and violate trusting young girls, including fellow founding UFW heroine Dolores Huerta. By grooming them the way that he did, Chavez created a culture in which powerful men could do as they please, and girls and women were exploited in the name of the "movement." It robbed women of their agency and opportunity and relegated them to second-class citizenship at a time when so many of them were putting in the work right behind Chavez and the other public-facing men involved. The women of the UFW had to not only fight off greedy farm owners and corrupt police and elected officials, but they also had to fight off their own leadership from taking advantage of them. If people didn't know about how courageous Dolores Huerta was before yesterday, they most certainly understand it today.
As for Cesar Chavez, his actions irreparably damage his legacy, as they should. Democrats are a big-tent party, but there is absolutely no room for the grooming and sexual exploitation of young girls. Buildings, streets, schools, and even service clubs will remove his name. Public holidays in his honor are already being withdrawn, with more to come. No more biopics starring Michael Pena. Chavez will receive the Neil Gaiman treatment in that his personal life will now greatly overshadow his professional life. The UFW will still have its story told in our textbooks. But the glowing language of its founder will be greatly diminished, and textbooks will instead elevate people like Dolores Huerta, who overcame so much more than any of us would have ever imagined. He'll be more than a footnote, but Cesar Chavez's role in the movement will never again be what it was before Wednesday.
It didn't have to be this way. Chavez could have accomplished everything he did without exploiting girls and young women. But the male ego is the most fragile thing on the planet. Give a man a taste of celebrity, and he feels the world owes him everything, including sex. When organizer Fred Ross discovered Chavez, he found a humble, married man who simply wanted a better life for himself and his community. Yet as Chavez grew into being a famous organizer, he would become more and more obsessed with his position of power. Anytime you become the face of a movement, you achieve a certain type of celebrity status. You feel the rules don't apply to you. As the figurehead of what would become the UFW, Chavez felt that he could use his position of power to exploit young girls and women. He did all this while being married. In the moment, Chavez wasn't thinking about his wife or his wedding vow. He was simply thinking about being able to coerce young girls and women in a way that made him feel big, strong, and powerful.
History is complicated and complex. Cesar Chavez did a helluva lot of good for tens of thousands of migrant farmworkers throughout the country. There's a reason so many buildings, streets, and schools bear his name. But Wednesday's revelations upend all of the good work that he did. What Chavez did to Dolores Huerta and those young girls was evil, vile, and reprehensible. The fact that it was kept secret for so long shows how vaunted Chavez remains to this day. Yet this newfound truth tells us about the real Cesar Chavez, not the one in Hollywood biopics. That truth needed to be told, even if it did end up being a half-century later. Because if Dolores Huerta and these other brave women had not told their stories, Chavez would have remained a paragon of virtue. Learning who Cesar Chavez actually was will be a tough pill to swallow for so many of us. But it is a pill we must take because, without it, there can never be justice for heroic women like Dolores Huerta and so many others who have been sexually exploited by powerful men. In the age of the Epstein Files, absolutely nobody should get away with the sexual exploitation and grooming of young girls.
And that includes even a contemporary hero like Cesar Chavez.