Piggy Best Be Paying Attention to the Disappearing Act of Cesar Chavez

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump's idea of "legacy" has nothing to do with great acts of humanitarian worth or achievements that will alter the course of mankind.  Donald's notion of legacy is to get his name on things, that's his way of insuring that he will be remembered.   Piggy is not taking into account the fact that what is "named" in his honor can quickly be "unnamed" once that honor has evaporated or been permanently besmirched.  Just ask the ghost of Cesar Chavez.

The New York Times began investigating rumors last year that Cesar Chavez, a co-founder and primary leader of the United Farm Workers, had sexually abused young girls as he was rising to power in the farm labor movement in the mid-20th century.  Last month The Times published stories regarding two women who said that Chavez groomed and sexually abused them when they were twelve and thirteen years old.

At the time those stories of child sexual abuse were breaking, The New York Times also posted a story about  civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, the person who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, in which she related that in the 1960's he had raped her and left her pregnant, and at a later time had coerced her into having sex and left her pregnant a second time.  In a statement to The Times, Huerta said:

"I am 96 years old and for the past 60 years have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.   Following the New York Times' multi-year investigation into sexual misconduct by Cesar Chavrz, I can no longer stay silent and must share my own experiences."

Dolores Huerta went on to tell of being raped by the iconic labor leader and placing the two babies that resulted from the rapes with other families to raise.

Cesar Chavez not only served as head the United Farm Workers, he also became a national spokesman for migrant issues and a highly respected civil rights leader.  Chavez, who died in 1993, went on to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously, a US Navy cargo ship named after him (Chavez was a World War II veteran), a bust of himself displayed in the Oval Office, Congress proclaimed a "Cesar Chavez" Day - March 31st, a US postage stamp issued in his honor. and numerous streets and schools named for him.

Today many of those accolades are coming down.  The legacy of Cesar Chavez is rapidly disappearing. and being replaced by a darker, more sinister depiction of the man once respected by so many.

Donald John Trump needs to be paying attention to the disappearing act of Cesar Chavez.  He may well be Trump's Ghost of Christmas Future.