On March 18, The New York Times published an investigative article alleging Cesar Chavez had sexually abused two adolescent girls consistently from 1972 to 1977. The two, along with fellow labor activist and cofounder of the National Farm Workers Association Dolores Huerta, have spoken out to confirm the allegations.
Huerta stated in the article that Chávez sexually assaulted her on two separate occasions, both of which resulted in pregnancies.
In another article by the New York Times, Huerta accused Chavez of being emotionally abusive and stated that she feared that speaking out sooner would hurt the farmworker movement.
Now, in light of the accounts of Chavez’s sexual violence, his reputation has been reexamined, prompting scholars to discuss the discipline of Chicano Studies, since Chavez and the farmworkers movement play an unequivocal role in its teachings. Scholars discuss the “great man narrative” and the issue of heteropatriarchy that goes beyond the classroom into community and family ways of living.
Dismantling the myth, centering the movement
Chicano/a/x Studies lecturer at Rio Hondo College in Los Angeles, Isabel Durón,
recalled the long critiques of Chávez’s reputation and how there is room for these conversations in college classrooms.
“Teaching contemporary issues, social movements or any movement for that matter, doesn’t just take one person, but hundreds of everyday people,” said Durón. “Yet, this one person has become larger than life.”
Assistant professor in the Department of Chicana/o Studies at Cal State Fullerton Nadia Zepeda specializes in community accountability and healing justice in Chicana/o feminist organizing.
She explained that her teaching involves a feminist approach to collective organizing that allows for a counternarrative against the “great man.”
“A lot of these men are centered in these narratives because they’re the ones that are seen with the bullhorn or getting arrested,” Zepeda asked.
In this counternarrative, Zepeda can reframe who has the spotlight and who is on the front lines. She said she has students read a piece by Dolores Huerta that focuses on seeing women as leaders and rethinking what it means to be one in a movement like the United Farm Workers. Zepeda also highlighted that in keeping old paradigms like “the great man narrative,” key stories and figures can be missed or ignored.
Teresa Montaño, former associate chair and current professor for Chicana/o Studies at CSUN, emphasized a shift towards a collective approach that focuses on the UFW’s legacy rather than Chávez’s.
“It’s going to be much more important to recognize our history, the legacy of our people, the power of our movement, the story of resistance and resilience that we’ve experienced,” Montaño said. “And for the better, we have a long way to go, but the movement for the betterment of our community is not contingent on one person.”
Montaño also highlighted that when feminist theory, pedagogy and critical race theory are discussed in Chicano studies classes, heteropatriarchy, white supremacy and misogyny should be discussed as well.
“It has to be less dependent on theory … and more about how they change our way of being, our epistemology, our culture, and that it’s not just dependent on women,” Montaño said. “Women are not the only ones that can do the work and raise it, but the men also have to get their hands dirty and dig.”
Montaño added that these issues are also systemic.
“What’s created from misogyny and the patriarchy and the silence when it happens in our families, in our homes, in our movement; we often focus on the individual and not the system that has created the ugliness that we experience,” said Montaño. “César is dead, but that doesn’t mean that the legacy of these types of situations don’t continue.”
While Montaño points to the persistence of these issues over time, Zepeda shifts the focus inward, exploring how they shaped community in movements like the UFW.
“There wasn’t a space to support women that we’re dealing with sexual violence,” she said. “What would have happened if [Dolores] came forward earlier?”
Zepeda said this situation speaks to a culture of silence in the Chicano/a/x community and the need for a survivor-centered accountability response.
The time to act is now
Durón also spoke about what she sees happening in real time with other stories of sexual violence within other Chicano community spaces, such as art, as well as other social and educational movements. She noted that she believes it’s important to take these allegations seriously and address them within the community.
“We are taking it upon ourselves to say this is not somebody that should be uplifted,” said Durón. “That shows, if anything, a commitment to wanting to keep our community safe and how we can challenge these histories of sexual violence.”
Sexual violence is an ongoing issue that is not taken seriously, according to Durón, who said that it takes multiple voices for the issue to be heard and for accountability to be taken. Durón is taking accountability in the classroom by sparking class discussion about the allegations in her Chicano/a/x studies introduction class, where heteropatriarchy and male domination discussions are already taking place.
“Trying to have that conversation of sexual violence is difficult within the classroom, right? And, it can be very triggering,” Durón said. “I think that’s the part that I’m trying to tap into.”
