Posted on 04/11/2026 11:08:15 PM PDT by River Hawk
The venerable Hispanic activist Cesar Chavez is venerated no more. After the New York Times reported that he sexually abused women and girls, the union organizer was posthumously cancelled. States and cities announced they would stop celebrating Cesar Chavez Day and many streets and plazas dropped his name.
The sudden cancellation likely marks the end of attempts to turn Chavez into the Hispanic MLK. Some conservatives see something else at work here. They claim Chavez was a border hawk and imply the sexual abuse claims were a convenient way to get rid of an unreliable leftist icon. It’s a common meme for immigration restrictionists to point to Chavez as one of their own. The Hispanic activist did at times oppose illegal immigrants taking jobs from the farmworkers he represented. It makes political sense to claim a left-wing hero as an advocate for sensible immigration policies, to give the position broader appeal. That’s why immigration hawks are also eager to put forth liberal Democrats Barbara Jordan and Eugene McCarthy as prominent exemplars of immigration restriction. No one would call those two reactionary bigots.
But unlike Jordan and McCarthy, Chavez did not remain an immigration hawk. He came to embrace illegal immigration, and his one-time opposition was only concerned with the immediate interests of his labor union. When those interests changed, he came to see illegal immigrants as potential members of his union and defended them.
(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...
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