Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by Luis J. Rodriguez on March 23, 2026.
Time to Uplift Our Women and Children Everywhere
After the New York Times article of March 18, 2026 appeared that revealed Cesar Chavez’s rape and sexual abuse of girls and women, including that of United Farmworkers Union co-founder Dolores Huerta, I spent days talking with community members, friends, and family. One of the most moving talks was with my daughter, who with tears said a terrible truth: There’s nowhere women can feel safe.
Trini and I also took part in healing circles at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore this past Sunday for women, for men, and one with women and men. In addition, I’ve been writing a piece I’d like to see published in a major U.S. publication. This may or may not happen, but I’m one of those who can reach such outlets.
The Chicano/Latino community is having its reckoning, like we’ve faced so many times before. But this must also extend to the rest of so-called “America,” now run by racists, misogynists, pedophiles, murderers, liars… and a slew of enablers. The MAGA base accepts this madness. Nobody from these millions of Trump followers are holding him and this administration, or the elite and wealthy they represent, fully accountable. The reckoning here is not just for Chicanos/Latinos, but for everyone.
Chavez will not be left off the hook. Neither should Trump and the ruling class.
Having said that, Chavez’s betrayal cuts deep. I’m heartened, however, to see many people stepping up for Dolores, for Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, and anyone else, known and unknown, who suffered at the hands of this so-called icon. As others are saying, it’s high time community centered and uplifted the women and children.
One of the gatherings I attended involved the men just listening to the women, not reacting, just sitting and hearing the power of their words, their sentiments. Their anger. While the pain was palpable, and difficult to hear at times, the women were also blessing us, gifting us, despite what they’ve endured from men in their families, their jobs, and in the movement. More men should go through this.
This is one reason I’ve not written yet. I’ve had to listen. But there is also a time to speak, to add our hearts to the other hearts. I plan to be part of the needed healing work required in the face of these and other revelations of abuse, betrayal, and abandonment.
These revelations are not new, of course, but every such wounding can be an opening to renew our commitment for safe and liberating spaces for women and children, for Queer and Trans people, for everyone. The women want us to go deeper, to uproot what needs to be uprooted, and to keep intact what needs to be intact.
There are many men today speaking for the community, voicing our stories and struggles, helping lead battles whether it be against ICE raids, erasure of our history, and other ongoing attacks. Poets, artists, musicians, organizers, spiritual practitioners, even in a few cases, politicians. We need them.
What we don’t need are so-called representatives, even in revolutionary organizations, even in ceremony, who live two lives: one full of great words, acts, and charisma, but in the dark, filled with the darkest of secrets. We don’t need those men who have a public life that looks like one thing, but a “private” life in which our women, children, including girls and boys, are being hurt, controlled, or subjugated to the worst acts imaginable.
Let’s deal with this head on, with the medicine we all carry, with as much grace as possible, with all the dignity we can muster. Even anger. Anger is also medicine. While righteous rage can be harsh, a consequence of these traumas, the thing is to stay with the anger that still has “eyes,” to see the source of the anger and where it’s going. That way we can adequately get to the root, not just rage blindly, destroying everything in its path. No matter what happens, we must maintain the capacity to renew, create and build.
Accountability, yes. I’ve had my own accountability, my own reckoning, to face many times (I’ve written memoirs, poems, and essays on this over the years). What we don’t need is the shaming, punishing, and constant hurting that the colonialist and capitalist world does in circumstances such as these. That’s one side of that coin. The other side is to keep the perpetrators going and strong, as we’re seeing in the government today.
This is a time to reflect on and consider what we do, not just for the short run, but for the long haul. We don’t want to be like a rubber band that stretches as far as it can until the tension forces it back to what it was before. We should learn to sit in the “fire,” the sacred transformative fire, and move forward on a basis of real love, real liberation, real healthy and mature deliverance.
There’s more I can say about this. Other angles. But for now, I want to go with the internal and external regeneration our community is demanding. Healing is some of the most difficult processes we can do, personally and as a community.
It’s also one of the most revolutionary.
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