Geoff Bennett:
There are new revelations and allegations of sexual abuse and rape of women and minors by one of America’s iconic civil rights and labor leaders, the late Cesar Chavez.
A new investigation by The New York Times included the accounts of two women who are now 66 years old who allege that Chavez abused them during his time leading the union he co-founded in the late 1970s, the United Farm Workers.
Civil rights leader and the co-founder of that union, Dolores Huerta, also said today that Chavez raped her back in the ’60s.
Our William Brangham has more.
William Brangham:
Geoff, in a public statement today, Dolores Huerta alleged that Chavez assaulted her in a vehicle. She said she stayed silent then and for decades after because — quote — “I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for. I have kept this secret long enough.”
She says she was impregnated by Chavez and that those children were then raised by other families. The two other women who spoke to The Times were daughters of longtime organizers for the union. Both said Chavez’s abuse went on for several years, starting at the ages of 12 and 13.
Both suffered depression, panic attacks, and one attempted to end her life multiple times. At least a dozen other women told the times that they had also been harassed by Chavez over many years.
The reactions to all of this has been swift. A number of cities and organizations are now canceling upcoming celebrations or events that are tied to Cesar Chavez Day.
And so for more on the impact of this stunning story, I am joined by historian Miriam Pawel. She is author of “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography.”
Miriam, thank you so much for talking with us.
As someone who has written extensively about this man, what is your reaction to these allegations? I mean, The Times did indicate that there had been whispers about this going on. Had you heard about any of this? I mean, what do you make of this reporting?
Miriam Pawel, Author, “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez”: Oh, and the reporting is obviously quite stunning in its level of detail, very shocking and disturbing.
There were — the issue of Chavez’s adultery was well-known. I wrote about that. Others have written about that as well. There was a well-known incident when his wife left him after intercepting a love letter from an 18-year-old. So 18 is not underage, but certainly questionable judgment at the time.
So there had been suggestions that sex played a role in his efforts to control the movement at a period of time in particular when it became what some people have compared to a cult. And so these new revelations are disturbing and add a whole other dimension to what we have known about Cesar Chavez and to what in some sense has been an ongoing reassessment of his legacy over the last 20 years.
William Brangham:
I mean, for people who are not that familiar with his legacy, it’s hard to overstate the impact he has had on the labor movement in this country.
What is your sense about what these allegations do to that movement? I mean, are you concerned that this could diminish what he did and what others have been building on in the decades since?
Miriam Pawel:
So I would say that his importance as a historic figure, not so much as a labor leader, but in some ways as a civil rights leader.
What he was able to do in terms of organizing the first union for farmworkers, who were predominantly Latino at the time, Mexican-American and Mexicans, as well as Filipinos, that accomplishment, that success that he had in convincing poor people and in teaching people that they had the ability through organizing to overcome the agricultural industry in all of its power in California, that is part of the most significant part of his legacy.
That is all in the past. That has not been the case right now for many, many years. And one of the things that I write about and others have is the ways in which he in some ways destroyed his own movement or the power of it in terms of its ability to help farmworkers.
So I think we have to separate his legacy and his reputation as a leader, as a Latino icon, as perhaps the most famous Latino in this country with what these new revelations do to people’s understanding of Cesar Chavez the man and how you reconcile the good and the bad that he did. He was a very complex, charismatic figure.
But in terms of his impact on the movement, that movement isn’t there anymore. I mean, whatever movement there is in terms of the civil rights legacy, in terms of farmworkers, there’s very little being done for farmworkers in the fields today. Now, that’s going to take new leadership, and that’s been true for quite a while.
William Brangham:
In her statement today, Dolores Huerta said that these actions in the past should not diminish the work of that movement. She said — quote — “I carried the secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work.”
Does that surprise you?
Miriam Pawel:
No, not at all.
I think that is very consistent with what has been the ethos in the movement for many, many years. When I began to talk to people about what had happened in the ’60s and ’70s and ’80s, this was in the 2000s, there were things that people had not talked about for decades.
They had stayed silent, not only about issues like this, which obviously there were people who knew about, but a whole sort of range of other kinds of verbal abuse, purges, violence, anti-immigration things, all sorts of things that went on, ways in which people were drummed out of the union for a period of time.
People didn’t talk about that because they believed so strongly in the power of the farmworker movement at that point in time to change life for farmworkers. And they did not want to say anything that might jeopardize the success of that movement or might complicate it.
So people overlooked a lot of red flags. And they now — the people who were closest to the movement at that time look back now and say, I sat there when this happened or that happened and I didn’t say anything.
And the reason they didn’t say anything was because they, again, sort of — Chavez brought so much hope to people and accomplished so much at the height of the movement and at the height of his power that people overlooked things that were clear red flags because they did not want to jeopardize that success.
William Brangham:
Indeed.
That is Miriam Pawel, author of “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography.”
Miriam, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us.
Miriam Pawel:
Thanks for having me.
Geoff Bennett:
And, late today, the Chavez family issued a statement saying they were devastated, adding — quote — “We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward.”
