We have all been horrified to learn of Cesar Chavez’s sexual assaults and rape of young girls and women. We who worked for years as volunteers or supporters of the United Farm Workers, even those of us like myself who were critical of Chavez, never expected anything like this.
The story recently published in The New York Times, carefully investigated and documented, leaves no doubt that Chavez violated those girls as well as betraying the trust that so many had placed in him.
When I wrote my biography César Chávez and La Causa twenty years ago, part of the Library of American Biography series made up of books to be read by college freshmen and sophomores, I thought about the young Mexican Americans and other Latinos who might read my book and be influenced by it. So, I attempted to give a balanced view of a man who, despite his significant faults, might still inspire young people. [1]
Chavez for most of his adult life worked to promote the well-being of the Mexican American people, who in the U.S, Southwest in the early twentieth century still faced racial segregation and discrimination.
When I wrote my biography César Chávez and La Causa twenty years ago, part of the Library of American Biography series made up of books to be read by college freshmen and sophomores, I thought about the young Mexican Americans and other Latinos who might read my book and be influenced by it. So, I attempted to give a balanced view of a man who, despite his significant faults, might still inspire young people. [1]
Chavez for most of his adult life worked to promote the well-being of the Mexican American people, who in the U.S, Southwest in the early twentieth century still faced racial segregation and discrimination.
Continue @ ESSF.
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