Tag Archives: Cesar Chavez

Survivors

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Posted by on in Social, impediments, Historical, Personal Values, children, Community

March 18, 2026- “No legacy is above accountability”- Nancy Pelosi. I have read, with disappointment and disgust, of the documented behaviour of the late Cesar Chavez, in the heyday of the United Farm Workers’ campaign to improve the lives of field hands in California, Arizona, Texas and Colorado, in the 1960s and ’70s.

To their credit, the economic justice and civil rights communities have denounced the assaults on Dolores Huerta and several young daughters of Chavez’s own close associates. Ms. Huerta stood as tall as Cesar Chavez, in those days, and now she stands ever taller. They both worked hard to improve the lives of agricultural workers, but he could not, or would not, transcend the deadly subculture of machismo, which measures a man’s worth by the number of sexual conquests he can claim.

“No legacy is above accountability”. We have, as an effect of deep research, come to re-assess the lives of every single heroic or admired figure in the past 500 years of American history. The legacies of everyone from Christopher Columbus to Cesar Chavez have now been examined, some tarnished beyond repair. There will be schools renamed, a state holiday (in Arizona) canceled and the lives of many hopefully given closure and some cleansing.

Some have chosen to waffle, in response to this news, There should be no daylight on this issue. Chavez died 32 years ago, but his reputation was shattered by the cancer of misogyny, the minute he violated the person of his first victim. It was buried in an unmarked grave, when he became emboldened to continue the lustful violence.

I can only say “Gracias, y lo siento profundamente” to every single woman who has carried this torment with her, all these years. “Me, too” must never become shopworn or rendered irrelevant, until every victim is given a path to justice and healing.

“No legacy is above accountability”.

The Road to 65, Mile 12: The Age of Unreason

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

December 10, 2014, Prescott- It seems so much these days is decided by emotion, accompanied by sloppy fact-checking, and the need more and more people seem to have, for external verification.  These processes don’t bring communities and nations together, and never will.

I have lived a fairly solitary life, for the past 3 1/2 years.  My family members all have full cups and don’t need anyone else’s concerns to address, no matter how great or small those are.  It’s for that reason that I have learned to rely on my own resources, and it’s why I am leaning more and more towards taking the bull by the horns, with regard to a full-time disaster prevention and relief position, in mid-February next year.

I have friends at all points on the political spectrum,  while maintaining my own sense of right and wrong.  My Dad was a social and fiscal conservative.  My mother is a social liberal, who nonetheless ran a tight ship, based on us taking responsibility.  So, I was compelled to listen to both points of view, growing up, and have the bounty of seeing many shades of opinion today.

I will not, though, go along with anyone who advocates oppression or harm to an innocent person, or group.  There are those who derive their power and satisfaction, from dividing people and groups.  We see this in everything from the camera hogs and pundits who are first on the scene of an episode of unrest, to the Deep Pockets who fund entities which seek to keep information from the people-at-large.

My parents liked and respected Martin Luther King, Jr, the Kennedy brothers, Cesar Chavez and even Malcolm X, after his return from Hajj.  My latter-day heroes are mostly international figures:   The late Nelson Mandela, Aung-san Suu Kyi,  Malala Yousafzai and the new President of Indonesia:  Joko Widodo.  Those who can see beyond the current atmosphere of “dodge and cast blame” are the figures who will lead us through the darksome night.