TRIGGER WARNING: When Our Heroes Turn Out to be Scumbags

Damn it, Cesar Chavez!

Having to read and then write about how you sexually abused and raped women and children including your esteemed movement colleague Dolores Huerta was not on my Substack Bingo card today. I was writing about my planned topic when my phone started pinging with notifications about your heinous crimes.

I didn’t realize I’d be watching you topple from the pedestal you’ve occupied since my teens, when I damn near made a scene in our local grocery store persuading my mother to stop buying iceberg lettuce and green grapes to support the United Farmworker’s Movement that you convinced us was essential for all good people working towards a better world.

And because my awesome mom was always down with and for the people, because we believed in and supported your cause, our household went without both of those items for a very long time.

Oh yes, Cesar Chavez, how we admired you! Even after your death in 1993, you’ve been widely and enthusiastically celebrated as the leader of the Latino Civil Rights and migrant workers movement with schools named in your honor, a national holiday on your March 31 birthday, and millions holding your legendary activism as a beacon of real activism. You even got a commemorative postage stamp.

So imagine my horror upon learning that The New York Times has been investigating the sexual allegations against you for a year. And today, when a street in Bakersfield, California, is about to be named in your honor, the NYT rolled out receipts reporting that you sexually abused Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas back when they were CHILDREN and you were in your 40s living your best life as a global champion for the rights of farmworkers. An excerpt from the NYT article:

Renowned activist Dolores Huerta. Photo courtesy of The Dolores Huerta Foundation.

Yeah, Cesar Chavez, at nearly 96 years old, your highest profile victim survivor stepped up and spoke up, shaking your legend and legacy to the core. Queen Mother of the United Farm Workers movement Dolores Huerta, issued a statement that further sickened those of us who held you in high esteem:

And it’s not just Cesar…

Well Fam, we know that Cesar Chavez is far from the only male hero revealed to be a disgusting sexual predator, whether in life or decades after their death. One thing you gotta appreciate about this intersection of the Information Age and Me Too (the latter created by Tarana Burke, a Black woman and revered advocate against abuse and abusers) is that the skeletons will come tumbling outta folks’ closets into the scorching light of day.

As a survivor of such atrocities, I both empathize with and salute Dolores Huerta, Ana Murguia, and Debra Rojas for the courage to share their terrible truths. I send them and all my fellow survivors virtual hugs, cups of tea, and healing energies because those violations rewire you at your core. And healing is a lifelong journey with no end in sight. Especially when these news stories trigger your traumas anew.

Creepy Chavez is just today’s headline example of the seemingly endless list of men in the public sphere whose work we admire, enjoy, consume—men we’ve looked up to and maybe contributed to or promoted—only to learn that they’re violent sexual predators.

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When the men we’ve held in high esteem are revealed to be such lowlifes, we’re forced to examine how they and their work might have impacted our lives, our values, and our actions. And who we might be as a result.

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And while I am super-glad to see public awareness of Rape Culture finally starting to grow, these stories and the endless posts, comments, think pieces, etc., leave us enraged, outraged, and stuck sifting through the debris that these monsters leave in the wake of their attacks. Because when they come crashing down from the pedestals they’ve occupied, we’re sometimes hit by the flying debris.

We’ve been here far too many times before. Whether it was Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Sean Combs, Matt Lauer, Kevin Spacey, and on and on and on ad nauseum, we are left to navigate the insane obstacle course of wrestling with our own values and determining how to reshuffle the decks of Men We’ve Believed In and now have to consign to the dumpster. And because of the marks they’ve made on our world, it’s not always so easy to cancel them or simply obliterate the ways they’ve imprinted the public sphere or our own sensibilities.

It’s a double-triple whammy for us survivors, and a tortuous Catch-22 for others who care about the harms these famous abusers cause. Plus it takes on a whole ‘nother level of complexity when the abusers are dead because we have to retrofit our memories, loyalties, and relationships to their legacies.

Like the testimonies some of my dear sisterfriends have shared about how decades ago, the recently departed Rev. Jesse L. Jackson came to their college campuses and casually reached out to palm their fully clothed breasts in elevators or crowded rooms. Because the shock and pain these actions cause aren’t simply physical. These young women had their innocence, their idealism, their profound respect of this African American icon shattered because he couldn’t keep his lecherous hands to himself.

This seemingly endless list of offenders reminds us that in addition to the direct harm these scumbags cause their victims, their fame and power cause millions of others to experience collateral damage by forcing us to reconfigure what these public figures really represent, and what we’re to make and of their very real contributions once the horrors of their true natures have been revealed.

We can grapple with whether we consume their music, their writing, their visual art, their movies, their television series, etc. But it cuts even deeper when the monsters are lauded as legendary activists whose work goes down in history and inspires our own activism. We’re slapped with the awful truths that just as colonizers invade countries and cultures, these sexual criminals directly invade the bodies, minds, spirits, and psyches of their victims while leaving their fans and followers reeling in the wake of the allegations that cast them in a new and nefarious light. When the men we’ve held in high esteem are revealed to be such lowlifes, we’re forced to examine how they and their work might have impacted our lives, our values, and our actions. And who we might be as a result.

In Chavez’ case, the entire history and future of the United Farm Workers movement will forever be stained by his disgusting deeds. This a burden the farmworkers truly don’t need in these times. Even worse is that his victims survivors suffered in silence while he likely never experienced any consequences or repercussions for this atrocious damage he caused while he was alive.

As a heartfelt tribute to Ana Murguia, Debra Rojas, Dolores Huerta, all survivors and everyone impacted by the leaders-turned-scumbags who prove unworthy of our respect, may we continue to heal, and to strengthen each other as more of these pitiful excuses for humanity and their ugly deeds come to light. May karma unmercifully kick all their asses in every realm.

And let’s support the Dolores Huerta Foundation in its work to empower communities for social justice.

Here are some resources for us survivors:

National Sexual Assault Hotline - RAINN

National Sexual Violence Resource Center

I’m happy to see that many communities are considering renaming some of the entities lifting up Chavez and HERE is a petition to change the names to honor Dolores Huerta instead.