Some Thursday Reads

 Lots of people are still in denial about the late Cesar Chavez being a piece of shit rapist.

During his lifetime, he might have been the most politically powerful Latino in the United States and certainly one of the most visible.  It would have been impossible for any woman to have spoken out against him, especially Dolores Huerta, who was every bit as important a figure in organizing farm workers has Chavez.

There should be lessons to be learned from these allegations.

Snip:

It shouldn’t have taken 60 years for these women to be heard. It shouldn’t have taken decades for these women to feel as though their experiences could be validated. We certainly shouldn’t have waited until 30 years past Chavez’s death to learn of their abuse and their trauma—a point at which real justice and accountability are rapidly diminishing prospects. These women have watched as the country has venerated a man they knew to be their abuser and elevated him to the highest annals of our civil rights history. They should never have carried such a terrible burden for so much of their lives.

I can’t think of a single woman in my life who hasn’t been assaulted, manipulated, or groomed by men they’ve trusted. Just this last week, I have read through conversations of women detailing their own assaults, sharing deeply painful memories in an effort to get readers to understand how this culture of violence and manipulation invades every space we walk into. I, myself, have been assaulted by people I thought I could trust on numerous occasions since I turned 18. Just as was the case for Dolores Huerta, two of the assaults I suffered resulted in pregnancies. My most recent assault was in 2022. This happens with startling regularity.

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