New allegations that César Chávez sexually assaulted women and girls, including minors, have triggered a fast and painful reckoning over one of the most celebrated figures in Mexican American and labor history.
The United Farm Workers, which Chávez co-founded, says it will not participate in César Chávez Day events this year.
In San Antonio, The César E. Chávez Legacy & Educational Foundation dissolved after more than three decades. The 30th Annual Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice was set for March 28 but has been called off. The march had honored farm workers who toil in the field to feed a nation and was also a food drive organized to help those affected by food insecurity.
The City of San Antonio has begun a process to change the name of César E. Chávez Boulevard. District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo sent a memo to City Manager Erik Walsh, requesting a series of “listening sessions” to change the name of the downtown street.
Chávez has long stood as a symbol of dignity and unity for farmworkers and of Mexican Americans demanding visibility, rights and respect in the United States. He and Dolores Huerta helped build the organization that became the United Farm Workers, and their movement won recognition for collective bargaining in California, while helping push better wages and working conditions into the national conversation.
For many families, the day to honor Chávez was never only about one man; it was about marking a broader struggle for belonging in America.
Now the harder question is whether honoring that struggle requires untangling the movement from the man. Historians and advocates in Texas have argued that social movements are built by workers, families and organizers, not saints. Farmworker leaders are already making that case, saying Chávez’s shattered legacy does not erase the gains won by countless others, especially women who later organized against sexual abuse in the fields.
Guest:
Cynthia E. Orozco is an award-winning best-selling author, historian, and educator. She earned degrees at the University of Texas at Austin and UCLA. Teaching first at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque she joined Eastern New Mexico University in Ruidoso where she recently retired as Professor Emeritus in History & Humanities.
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