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Allegations swirled yesterday about long-dead labor leader Cesar Chavez, but whenever sex stuff emerges from decades past, in this case a half-century past, I cynically start to wonder: why now?
"Si, se puede!" was President Barack Obama's campaign slogan in 2008. The slogan comes from the labor movement of Cesar Chavez, who organized produce workers in California in the 1970s and has been much lauded by the Democratic Party. But now, the long-dead union organizer and leftist labor darling is being skewered by the very people who have revered his memory.
Chavez's views on illegal immigration have come under scrutiny by Democrats and leftists in recent years because of his vehement opposition to illegal immigration. He believed that illegal immigration drove down wages and did a disservice to the very workers he was trying to help. He believed that undocumented workers should be reported to federal authorities and not permitted to do the work of union workers. He opposed pay raises for union leaders and felt more solidarity with the workers than with the labor bosses.
Chavez, notes the Center for Immigration Studies, "was a border hawk and an anti-identitarian." Opponents of illegal immigration have sought to name his birthday, March 31, National Border Control Day. Chavez marched against illegal immigration in 1969 and looked upon illegal workers as strikebreakers who would take the work offered without a care for conditions or the union fighting for labor rights. "We’re against illegals no matter where they work because if they’re not breaking the strike they’re taking our jobs," he said in 1974.
Dolores Huerta, a long-time labor advocate who worked with Chavez and was an outspoken union organizer throughout her career. She is now a proponent of undocumented immigrants, saying "they are us." She opposes immigration enforcement and says that crossing the border illegally should be considered a civil, and not a criminal offense. Her recent labor work is in support of undocumented farmworkers.
She said in an interview," The New York Times reports, "that he sexually assaulted her." Huerta is only now going public, at 95-years-old. Huerta is the one who coined the phrase "si, se puede" and now tells the Times she "has held on to a dark secret for nearly 60 years." She was 36 at the time of the incident in 1966, which followed a consensual act in 1960 when she "felt pressured" to engage in sex with Chavez. She told the Times she didn't think anyone would believe her if she told them about it.
The New York Times says that two women claim that Chavez "abused them for years when they were girls, from around 1972 to 1977." He was in his 40s, the Times writes, and was "a powerful, charismatic figure who captured global attention as a champion of farmworker rights."
In response to the Times bringing up the allegations of two women, the United Farm Workers canceled their planned celebrations of Chavez's life, citing the allegations of abuse by Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, who were teens at the time, as "profoundly shocking." Murgia said she was molested while Rojas said she was raped. Chavez was a family friend to their parents and they'd all marched together in protests.
The UFW cancelled all plans to celebrate Chavez's upcoming birthday over the "troubling allegations." In a statement, they said "We need some time to get this right, including to ensure robust, trauma-informed services are available to those who may need it."
The thing is, these rumors were basically an open secret for decades. People know about Chavez's proclivities, dalliances with married women, and have heard tell of more sinister details about minor girls. It wasn't raised during his lifetime; instead, he was celebrated. There's got to be a reason why now, after he's been dead more than 30 years, the left sees fit to raise it now.
Libby