Cesar Chávez and the Question of Historical Erasure
By Luis R. Torres
The film was screened at the Egyptian Theatre.
Last Friday I was pleased to attend a screening of a just completed documentary film about the iconic musical group Los Lobos. Their eclectic recordings and performances draw on their mexicano cultural and historical roots as well as their distillation in the rock and roll oeuvre of the USA. They have long been embraced by American audiences, particularly by the Chicanada. Among many other things, Los Lobos have long been emblematic of the social-cultural phenomenon that’s come to be known as the Chicano Movement. To some degree, their arc of accomplishment paralleled the growth and influence of the farm workers’ struggle, generally thought to have been the creation of an equally iconic figure – Cesar Chávez. It was a joy to sit and watch the film, as part of a large and enthusiastic audience.
It is a well-crafted film that explores both the musical prowess and the cultural impact of Los Lobos. Originally, there was a segment in which Cesar Chávez, on camera, extols the artistic achievements of the group as well as their impact on the movimiento. That segment featuring Cesar Chávez and his praise of the band was not in the film. It had been in the film a few days before.
It had been in the documentary just a week before. The movie, titled “Los Lobos Native Sons,” had debuted at the South by Southwest cultural festival in Austin, Texas on March 15 (yes, as in “Beware the Ides of March”) just a week or so before the screening at Hollywood’s formidable Egyptian Theatre Chávez was in the film. Then, a few days later he was gone. Chávez was erased. What happened? The day after the Austin screening, the New York Times dropped its wrecking ball of an investigative story about the darkly serious allegations of sexual abuse by Chávez.
The story sent shock waves through many in the public, particularly in the Latino community. Shock. Disbelief. Denial. Anger. Sympathy. Virulent criticism. Those and other emotions and attitudes permeated a huge community. Since he began his work, together with farm worker union co-founder Dolores Huerta, Chávez had been widely admired. He was credited with improving the lives of farm workers who, for years had harvested the crops as virtual indentured servants. He was credited with providing valued support and inspiration for the burgeoning Chicano Movement. His influence and impact were widely recognized across the country.
His comment in the documentary film about the impact of Los Lobos punctuated the significance of the band and its achievements. But that comment from Cesar Chávez was soon purged from the film. About a week after the screening in Austin the documentary had an auspicious premiere at the storied Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Chávez was not in the film. The directors of the film had edited him out. An act of erasure.
The author with César Chávez.
Piero F. Giunti is one of the co-directors of the film, working in tandem with his colleague Doug Blush. He reacted to the news about the allegations of sexual abuse the way many responded. “It was just horrible, just devastating,” he told me. “It was just heart-breaking.” The revelations in the New York Times article caused him to immediately contemplate what to do about the Chávez clip in the movie. In the article, Chávez was accused of sexually abusing very young girls and of raping Huerta. It was all extremely unsettling to those who admired the work of Chávez on behalf of farmworkers. Giunti reasoned that it made sense to make the edit. “It’s a shame, because it was a beautiful moment in the film,” he says. “But it just seemed like the right thing to do, to make that cut.”
“Taking it out was heart-breaking,” he says. “It was like taking down the posters of your musical heroes after you learned they did something wrong. The segment was a beautiful piece that put Los Lobos in a solid historical place.” He says it reminds him about an aphorism about encountering your heroes, whether in music or other fields. “You know, you shouldn’t meet your heroes, I guess is one of the lessons.” In the context of the Cesar Chávez controversy he says: “I think we should focus on the movement and not the individual.”
Hero worship. The cult of the personality. Those are fraught with potentially pernicious consequences. That’s given. But how do we reconcile the maddening rush to eliminate Chavez from the current culture – and from history itself? In knee-jerk fashion, murals are being whitewashed. Efforts are underway to remove his name from street signs in cities and small towns. Some school libraries are putting books about Chavez on the back shelves, obscured from view. There’s animated discussion in some circles about eliminating references to Chávez in history books and classroom lessons.
The Los Lobos debut album.
We should tread carefully. History, based on evidence and documented events and facts, is a solid, immutable reality. You can’t – shouldn’t—erase history on a whim. In the case of Chávez, his reported abuses don’t automatically erase the reality of what he, along with many others, achieved over thirty years of activism. It’s not easy to reconcile all of this, of course. What Chávez accomplished, along with Dolores Huerta and others, gave spirit and hope to millions of people, within the Chicano community and beyond. Those efforts resulted in demonstrable, tangible achievements that made life better for farm workers and their families. That struggle continues. We can’t erase that reality.
When the solid, documented reporting by the New York Times hit the fan, I – along with lots of other folks—was devastated. I accept the veracity of the reporting. Yeah, but it’s still a giant bummer. Disappointment and anger don’t come close to describing the feeling caused by those revelations—and the residue of those revelations. What a bummer.
It’s going to take a lot of time, thought and effort to reconcile all of this. Changes to how we tell the story of the farm worker struggle will require thoughtfulness, critical evaluation and nuance. His legacy will be tarnished, for sure. But his life and his achievements should not be erased.
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Copyright by Luis R. Torres, Luis.r.torres@charter.net Torres is a veteran journalist and author. He lives in Pasadena. Photos of Los Lobos album and film used under “fair use” proviso of the copyright law. Photo of the author and César Chávez supplied by the author.