A New York Times investigation has uncovered “extensive evidence that the United Farm Workers co-founder” César Chávez “groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the movement.”
In addition to accusations Chávez abused minors and women, his longtime ally Dolores Huerta accused Chávez of assaulting her, too.
“Unfortunately, he used some of his great leadership to abuse women and children — it’s really awful,” Huerta told the Times.
Of course, Chávez has been dead since 1993, so he won’t be held accountable unless there actually is a hell for him to burn in.
In this plane of existence, though, these reports of abuse will at least put an end to his much undeserved deification by Mexican-American and other activists.
Chávez, who denounced hardworking people as “wetbacks,” certainly was an effective campaigner when he was alive.
As Patty Newman wrote for Reason Magazine in the early 1980s, “California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA) was undeniably tailor-made for a specific union—Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers.”
“The law itself, in the words of several economists who have studied it, gives to farm labor unions ‘privileges that the most dictatorial government could only hope for,’” Newman explained. “Add all this up, and the result is that the United Farm Workers union has been able to gain unprecedented, inordinate control over its members and over the business decisions of farmers.”
Some progressives, I guess, think that’s an inspiring legacy. But this Mexican-American never cared for the hype around Chávez. He was a cult-following union thug and, apparently, a sexual predator.
Let the “César Chávez” re-namings begin.
¡Afuera!
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com