THE UNFOLDING OF THE CÉSAR CHÁVEZ-DOLORES HUERTA SAGA: THE FIVE STAGES SO FAR

Colage: CC mural removed from downtown Bakersfield on 4/3; new DH mural by Robert Vargas, unveiled in L.A. on 4/12

It's only been three weeks (March 18) since the NY Times published its explosive investigative report on César Chávez's (CC) sexual crimes. There were revelations of him having groomed and abused young girls for years in the 1970s. Dolores Huerta (DH) - CC's longtime associate -herself revealed having been assaulted by Chávez twice in the 1960s, resulting in pregnancies. 

What has happened since then, intertwined sequentially, has been very illustrative to watch unfold, and a cautionary tale for these times we live in of shifting and ubiquitous social spectacle:

a) AVOWING & REPUDIATING THE SHOCKING TRUTH: The widespread reaction at all levels was the expression of shock, dismay, and strong condemnation of Chávez's revealed predatory behavior. No doubt in an early effort to "get ahead of the story," the UFW and the CC Foundation, the Chávez family, DH and the DH Foundation, all came out with statements immediately repudiating such behavior, expressing empathy and offering support for the victims, and announcing their withdrawing from all upcoming CC Day (March 31) celebrations. 

b) SALVAGING DOLORES HUERTA: A series of lengthy national interviews immediately followed, in both English and Spanish media, with Dolores Huerta, where she gave her explanation as to what had happened to her and why she chose to keep it a secret for so long - for the sake of the movement, and because CC was "her boss." She cast herself as a survivor who sacrificed herself and her family for the cause, and who knew nothing regarding the other egregious allegations of sexual misconduct.

c) ERASURE RAMPAGE OF CC: That seem to work. Two large and opposite trends followed: on the one hand, from the heights of the Democratic political establishment on down to school districts and local parks, an instant, spontaneous movement to publicly erase Chávez from every public site ensued: CC Day in California and other states, his name from schools, centers, parks, and streets, his face from murals, his bronze monuments, etc.; accompanied, on the other hand, by a massive, spontaneous outpouring of sympathy and loving support for DH on every social media platform. 

d) DEEPER ANALYSES EMERGE BUT ARE SIDELINED: CC Day came and went - now changed to Farm Worker Day in California and elsewhere. The blind public erasure of CC proceeded with lightening speed and unbelievable thoroughness. Those of us who published a more nuanced, balanced, and critical analysis of the broader social and movement conditions (see here, here, here, here, and here) which gave rise to CC's great achievements as well as explained the root causes of  his egregious abuses of authority, his cult of personality, etc., were simply skipped, by and large ignored by both the political establishment and the public at large.  Off with his head! seemed to be the rallying cry both at the very top of the political class and throughout the social mediascape.

e) BACKLASH: OFFICIALDOM'S CELEBRATION & SOCIAL MEDIA REPUDIATION OF DH: In a most unexpected way, DH's 96th birthday (April 10), a mere ten days after the total cancellation of CC from public view, produced an amazing new spectacle - a complete bifurcation between the way the political class celebrated her, and her widespread scathing repudiation by the social base.

On the one hand, the entirety of the Democratic Party establishment and most of its allied organizations in civil society, came out to joyously celebrate her and her legacy of life-long social activism. Governor Newsom proclaimed DH Day, a new huge mural of her likeness was unveiled in L.A., and every social media platform was choke-full of posts with proud pictures of her next to some prominent pol. It was as if it was all back to "normal" again - using her image and fame to advance the political careers of untold numbers of aspiring pols, from Newsom's presidential ambitions on down.

But to my surprise, these very celebratory posts from on high were consistently accompanied by scores, in some cases hundreds, of raw, vulgar commentaries not just repudiating DH in the most brutal ways, but many expressing support for CC instead! And that was a telltale sign this avalanche of rejection was not coming from the usual Maga haters - this was coming from the Dems' Latino base.

This means the political class tried to move past the erasure of CC, shift gears, and lift up DH to new heights, only to see the maneuver badly - and unexpectedly - backfire among the broader public, seemingly disgusted with the whole spectacle.

This is remarkable! It shows not just how much out of touch the Dems are from the base, how much the base see through and are tired of their manipulations, but, sadly, analyzing the barrage of vulgar, visceral reactions and their simplistic either/or framing, how far the social base still is from absorbing a deeper understanding of what led to the fall of one of their heroes, as many are now, in a fit of blind rage, busy overthrowing the other in this intertwined saga of the lives and legacies of these two complicated historic figures. 

It also vividly demonstrates how joined by the hip the histories and legacies of CC and DH truly are, and how every attempt to artificially separate them - their great achievements as well as their great shortcomings - is doomed to fail. That's also true of the political (mis)uses of either one of them by the duopoly.

The eye of history - if not of us currently, immersed as we seem to be in irrational passions and prey to ulterior motives - will judge them jointly, for better and for worse.

No doubt, further twists and turns to this unfolding drama awaits us. Many more revelations are sure to come, on both of them.

Hopefully, the people's movements will learn the deeper lessons from this episode and move forward with a much better understanding of the allure of manufactured fame, the pitfalls of unrestrained charismatic leadership and pursuing cults of personality as opposed to ensuring collective leadership and accountability, and the deeply flawed strategy of "working within the system" - which is, unsurprisingly, always busy trying to co-opt, defuse the people's movements, and defeat their just causes. The cautionary tale here is that the duopoly-captured “branded” social movements end up essentially working for the system.

¡Nuestros heroes y líderes no son ni diablos ni santos! ¡La historia la hacen los pueblos - los verdaderos héroes! ¡Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo! ¡Autonomía y poder popular! ¡La resistencia se organiza, ni se renta, ni se vende! ¡No se dejen embaucar!