CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

César Chávez and the Price of Hero Worship

Cesar Chavez (center) on a march from the Mexican border to Sacramento with United Farm Workers members in Redondo Beach, California, July 1975. Image Wikipedia.

For more than a decade, troubling claims about César Chávez’s sexual abuse were already documented. Miriam Pawel’s 2014 biography, The Crusades of César Chávez, explored both his extraordinary achievements and the darker corners of his personal conduct, including allegations of coercion and sexual abuse. Yet the story remained largely unspoken, held back by reverence, hero worship, and structures that protected power. When a New York Times investigation resurfaced these allegations, for me, sorrow came first — for the women whose lives were scarred, for the movement that carried hope across fields and classrooms, and for the part of me that needed Chávez to be a saint.

I had held him like a talisman: sacrificial courage and moral clarity. It fit the world I wanted to see. And then that story cracked. Only when Dolores Huerta, after nearly 60 years of silence, spoke her truth could I confront the full weight of it and reckon with what hero worship had cost those who were silenced.

Chávez co-founded the United Farm Workers in 1965, transforming farm labor into a national cause. Strikes, boycotts, and marches drew attention to conditions so brutal they were almost unimaginable. He became a symbol of justice and perseverance for Latino civil rights, appearing on murals and becoming a global icon. His leadership inspired hope and achieved real change for farmworkers — but reverence for him often eclipsed scrutiny. Understanding his achievements does not excuse harm, but it shows why so many were unwilling to question him.

Again, the allegations of abuse are not new. Pawel’s........

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