Antonio Bustamante preserved the labor leader’s watercolors Cesar Chavez For more than 35 years, he has hung it on the wall of his law office in Yuma, Arizona. As a young man, he was influenced by Chavez and helped organize workers before joining his security team.
Like many others, Bustamante now must struggle to reconcile the man he adored with Chavez’s allegations. They were groomed and sexually assaulted Women and young girls.
“I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to be able to emotionally and intellectually understand my perception of him as a very good man, compared to these things he’s said to have done,” Bustamante said, his voice filled with emotion.
Chavez has built a national reputation Organization in fields. With Dolores Huerta – Also one of his victims -He co-founded the United Farm Workers union, led a hunger strike, a grape boycott with Filipino farmworkers, and eventually pressured farmers to negotiate better wages and working conditions for Mexican American farmworkers.
Nearly two weeks after a New York Times report detailing sexual assault allegations, communities and human rights groups across the country are still wondering how we should remember him. His name and photo have already been erased From monuments, streets and murals across the country.
Bustamante said he learned of the allegations when an old friend called him to tell him about the upcoming report. What flashed through his mind, he said, were the faces of others who knew and admired Chavez, and “how devastated their eyes would be.”
“Society looked down on us, we were Mexicans,” Bustamante said, recalling the first time he saw Chavez speak outside the Arizona State Capitol in 1972 when he began a hunger strike. “He gave us value, and that’s what young people are all about.”
Now, some of Bustamante’s friends have removed photos of Chavez. In his community, Bustamante likened it to condemning Catholicism and removing images of the Pope.
For many, this is an example of why movements should not be tied to a single leader.
Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers Union, said the discrepancy between Chavez’s legacy and the allegations is inevitable.
“We hold in our hands Cesar Chavez, a man who committed terrible acts that we will never be able to justify,” Romero said. “On the other hand, we have Cesar Chavez, an organizer who brought together thousands and thousands of people to be able to work for farmworkers, improving their lives and working conditions.”
Unfortunately, both came from the same person, Romero said.
The farmworker movement has always been driven by collective effort, said Sihela Mota Casper, executive director of Latinos in Heritage Preservation.
“The rights and protections that came from it belong to the people who built them,” she said. “It wasn’t just one individual.”
This perspective, she said, offers a way forward: acknowledging Chavez’s role without letting it overshadow the contributions of others, including Huerta, and the challenges they faced.
Advocacy groups like the nonprofit Voto Latino have taken a similar stance, saying, “The women who organized, marched, and sacrificed alongside farmworkers carried this movement on their backs.”
These allegations also prompted swift public action. within days, Statues Removed and celebrations cancelled Rename itincluding events related to federalism Cesar Chavez Day On March 31st.
Political leaders from both parties condemned the alleged violations. Some Republicans, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have cited it as part of a broader criticism of Chavez’s progressive legacy.
Abbott said Texas — a state home to dozens of Confederate monuments — will no longer celebrate Cesar Chavez Day, saying the allegations “undermine the narrative that elevated Chavez as a figure worthy of official state observance.”
At the same time, groups like the nonpartisan Latino Victory Project, which focuses on developing Hispanic political leadership, said this current moment should not distract from ongoing civil rights battles.
“That legacy hasn’t changed,” said Paul Ortiz, a professor of labor history at Cornell University and director of graduate studies for Latino studies. “And these legacies are about the power of people.”
What seems inevitable, Bustamante said, is that there will always be an asterisk next to Chavez’s name.
He said: “Does this detract from the greatness and meaning of his achievements? No, it does not.” “But can we look beyond that to honor him? That’s the hard part.”