Long Island Hispanic leaders rethinking Cesar Chavez's legacy amid sex abuse allegations

Shocking allegations that Cesar Chavez, an icon of the Mexican American civil rights movement and a fierce backer of farmworkers, sexually abused girls as young as 13 have sparked a sudden reconsideration of the man from leaders and advocates in Long Island's Hispanic community, and at Stony Brook University of the naming of a dorm in his honor.

Margarita Espada, an artist, performer and educator who runs Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja, based in Bay Shore, told Newsday it was Chavez’s "Teatro Campesino," in which farmworkers performed plays on the backs of flatbed trucks and in union halls, that inspired her to see the arts as a tool for social change.

"It’s a deep hurt," Espada said of the allegations published Wednesday in a lengthy investigation by The New York Times.

Iconic image

The Times reported that Chavez, who died in 1993 at age 66, sexually abused girls as young as 13 years old and raped his longtime organizing partner, Dolores Huerta, now 96. Huerta told The Times she was revealing the assault for the first time.

Chavez as an abuser would bely his image built over a life as an activist: a global icon for the rights of workers through his efforts in California and beyond, aimed at better labor conditions for the often Spanish-speaking farmworkers — many in the country temporarily or illegally and lacking political clout to prevent abuses of labor. His work led him to make a cross-country trip to Long Island decades ago to demand farmers hire members of his United Farm Workers labor union.

"He was a giant," said the Rev. Ron Richards, a retired priest in the Diocese of Rockville Centre who, like Espada, gained inspiration from Chavez for his own advocacy on behalf of farmworkers in Georgia decades ago.

Added Richards: "He was one of the heroes."

The UFW, which Chavez and Huerta co-founded in 1962, announced it had canceled events scheduled for later this month commemorating his March 31 birthday. The UFW in a statement called the allegations "troubling."

The Times detailed the stories of two women who said Chavez, from about 1972 to 1977, sexually abused them when they were girls. Chavez, in his 40s at the time, "had become a powerful, charismatic figure who captured global attention as a champion of farmworker rights," The Times wrote.

Chavez Hall

Many of the women Chavez allegedly abused "stayed silent for decades, both out of shame and for fear of tarnishing the image of a man who has become the face of the Latino civil rights movement, his image on school murals and his birthday a state holiday in California," The Times reported.

At Stony Brook University, a dorm is named after Chavez. Students who live in Chavez Hall can participate in a yearlong program in which they try to emulate his activism through community service, according to the university’s website.

In a statement to Newsday, Stony Brook said it is "deeply sympathetic to the women who have come forward and to all victims of abuse and exploitation. The university has rigorously maintained policies and practices governing the naming and renaming of facilities and will take appropriate and necessary action to address these allegations in accordance with those policies and practices."

Keith Scott, president and CEO of Pronto, a major food pantry and community assistance group based in heavily Hispanic Brentwood, said: "We are grateful that we live in a society where the voices of survivors of abuse are heard."

While Chavez "elevated the voices of a very marginalized population," the focus now should be on the survivors, Scott said.

Long Island protest

Long Island, with its extensive East End farms and sizable consumer market, played a role in Chavez’s activism. He came here in 1974, when he stood in front of Hill’s Supermarket on Route 110 in Huntington Station to protest the abuses of grape and lettuce growers who were refusing to hire workers from his union, according to a Newsday story at the time.

"The men at Hills are profiteering from unbelievable working conditions and the crucifying work of stoop labor," Chavez told about 200 supporters, including some clergymen. "This is not only unjust, but sinful. Hills is sinning against human beings."

Richard Koubek, a leader of the Long Island Immigrant Justice Alliance, said in an interview with Newsday on Wednesday: "I am heartbroken. These sins should not be forgotten. But neither should his service to beleaguered immigrant farmworkers."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Correction: Cesar Chavez died in 1993. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect year.