César Chávez and the Price of Hero Worship

Cesar Chavez (center) on a march from the Mexican border to Sacramento with United Farm Workers members in Redondo Beach, California, July 1975. Image Wikipedia.

For more than a decade, troubling claims about César Chávez’s sexual abuse were already documented. Miriam Pawel’s 2014 biography, The Crusades of César Chávez, explored both his extraordinary achievements and the darker corners of his personal conduct, including allegations of coercion and sexual abuse. Yet the story remained largely unspoken...