| This week, The Nation’s staff was astonished and saddened to learn that Dolores Huerta, who cofounded the United Farm Workers union along with Cesar Chavez, was sexually abused by Chavez for years; a story that is apparently not unique to Huerta.
In solidarity with Huerta and other women in the farmworkers’ movement, we republished her personal statement. “The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me,” she writes. Nevertheless: “The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. Cesar’s actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people.”
Meanwhile, writer Mel Buer cautions that there is more for us to learn from Huerta’s story. “A culture of silence, of shoving these harms and abuses down into oneself in the purported service of a ‘greater good’ has been extremely pervasive in American progressive movements,” she writes. “We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever.”
-Alana Pockros
Associate Editor, The Nation |
