Debra Rojas and Ana Munguia, born as farmworker children, grew up in an America that denied them hope of livelihood, decent schooling, ordinary comforts of food, stable housing and healthcare. They also carried a punishing secret, now smashed open, naming César Chávez, the iconic leader of the United Farmworkers, as a sexual predator.

A migrant worker himself, César Chávez was a labor organizer of migrant farmworkers in California. He and Dolores Huerta together founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. Sometimes referred to as the Chicano Moses, he achieved an iconic status, especially among Mexican Americans. As a civil rights activist, he was highly effective in his nonviolent methods of Ghandi-inspired activism; he also drew from Catholicism and popular spirituality within the Mexican American community. Recent verified reports allude to a culture of sexual abuse within the labor organization, including several instances of Chávez sexually assaulting girls and Dolores Huerta.

I was sickened by the news. It was a gut-punch, truly, to know that a spiritual leader I had learned from and absorbed into my own core philosophy was a sexual predator. I felt sullied, defiled even. I did not know him, but I diligently and with passion, passed along his entire lifetime of teachings and practices to mostly Latina students at a Catholic liberal arts university in southwest Texas. I felt ashamed and angry.  For years, I promoted the legacy of a sexual offender to other vulnerable people, unknowingly of course, but that offered little relief. Our work remains: listen to women, prevent sexual violence and restore the significance of female embodiment across the lifespan.