S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman on today's show , the legacy of Cesar Chavez is now marred by allegations of rape and abuse , the latest fallout as institutions cut ties with his name. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The San Diego Unified School Board voted last night to rename Cesar Chavez Elementary School. It's one of many efforts to remove Chavez's name from schools , parks and other spaces following sexual abuse and rape allegations that surfaced last week. The district says it's also developing a guide for teachers about how to discuss the news with students. Here's board president Richard Barrera.
S2: Both at the state level and at the district level. We're trying to develop a curriculum for teachers to be able to talk about the farm workers movement as being bigger than any one individual , but also to , you know , talk honestly and confront issues of abuse.
S1: There are layers of issues surrounding this. And here to unpack that is journalist Jean Guerrero. She took some time to reflect on last week's news through the lens of survivors on her Substack , called On Silencing. Jean , welcome back to Midday Edition. Always a pleasure to have you.
S3: Great to be here.
S1: So listen , in a recent newsletter , you start by writing that you share a birthday with Chavez. March 31st. Now , growing up , you were proud to have that in common with him.
S3: And I remember just feeling so proud to share a birthday with a labor icon who symbolized , um , the fact that I was part of a legacy of struggle for marginalized communities as a Latina. Um , and I think it really awakened this desire in me to devote my life similarly to advocating for marginalized communities , in my case , through journalism. But I just grew up so proud to to share that with him. And obviously now it's it's just a very different story. It's and it's it's heartbreaking.
S1: It is. And complicated.
S3: I mean , when I first heard that this investigation was going to be coming out , I there were a lot of rumors about it among Latina writers. Um , and my initial reaction was , was fear. I was like , why ? Oh my God , why , why ? Why now ? You know , like , our communities are under sustained attack. Um , and we have all of these people in the Epstein files who are not being held accountable. So my first reaction was , no , no , no. Like why we can't lose another hero. Um , but then I read the investigation and I was just utterly disgusted. Disturbed. Inspired by the survivors and the sensitivity of the reporting , I felt like it was a really important story that had opened up a window of opportunity for healing and transformation in our community. Um , but because of the example set by these survivors who were pushing back against decades of silence , and particularly in Latino communities , this learned , um , conditioning to keep quiet about our abuse and to protect the hurt men who hurt us. at the expense of our health , our physical health , and our mental health.
S1: Well , you know , Dolores Huerta , co-founder of the United Farm Workers , revealed that she was also raped by Chavez. And she said she kept it secret for 60 years because she didn't want to hurt the farmworker movement she spent her entire life fighting for.
S3: And what this has awakened is this reckoning in social justice movements , with the fact that so many of us have had to carry that burden for the hurt men in our communities. And and Dolores Huerta and the other survivors like Anna murguia and Debora Rojas and Esmeralda Lopez. They are basically setting a new example and saying , we don't have to carry the cross by ourselves. We don't have to carry the cross in silence. We can unburden ourselves and we can start to work as a community towards a better way of of caring that kind of inherited trauma and transforming it into something , something powerful.
S1: You know , you use the Spanish word desa algunos to yeah , to yeah , to , to describe what the survivors did by telling their truths. Yes. Explain that to me. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. So it's the Spanish word that I kept coming back to this awareness , which literally means to drown ourselves. There's no exact English translation for it. Um , the closest is like to unburden yourself to. It's a kind of confession that is life giving. Um , but this , our God knows , like , literally translates to us drown ourselves. And what I saw happening online after this story broke was exactly that. You know , Latinas sharing their experiences , this loss , finally exhaling. Um , other people in social justice movements. Um , and it was kind of incredible because while the story was super painful and I mean , I just don't have words , it's incredibly painful. But at the same time , it was kind of a miracle because by pursuing justice and accountability amid this kind of global breakdown in law and order and this firehose of chaos and cruelty that is meant to drown us. Um , where that and the other survivors are basically providing an alternative world to us. Like , they're literally cracking open this opportunity for us to breathe again to. Um , what I , what I wrote in my essay was that they freed us from the tyranny of the present and gave us back the past and the future. Um , they're really just creating space for us to to breathe , to grieve together and to imagine repair as something that is possible. And not just survival , not just resistance. But let's imagine a completely different future. Um.
S1: Um. So true. And , you know , I want to hear more about your own story as well , because you write about the process behind your first book , crux , and certain decisions you made within that. How are you thinking about that now ? Yeah.
S3: I mean , so while reflecting on these revelations , it was very triggering for me as it was for a lot of other women , and I just started to think about all of the times in my life that I have excused or minimized , um , misconduct and abuse by men in my family , including my father , who I wrote my first book about crooks. Um , that book has been described by NPR as a love letter to my father , and I chose to omit some of the worst abuses because I feared that they would render him unsympathetic to readers in a society that demonizes flood brown men while sending white felons to the white House. And I deliberately wanted to challenge that imbalance by writing from a place of love and compassion. Um , and I don't regret that. But I realized in retrospect that I was in my silence. Um , not just in the silence , but in my own failure to reckon with the extent of the abuse , I was betraying myself and I was betraying my inner child. And I needed to stop doing that. And actually , I mean , before these revelations came out , I started to set new boundaries with my father. Um , and , and have been taking steps. But but it's just it's been really it's just triggered a lot for me , you know , and for , like , for a lot of other women realizing , you know , when I was , when I was a teenager , I was , I was raped when I was 15 by a man who I knew had been sexually abused as a child. And I just I extended empathy to him. I kept him in my life for many , many years after the rape. Um , and I think a lot of women in the Latina community particularly , are starting to realize how harmful it is for us to excuse and excuse and excuse and carry all of that by ourselves. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. It is such a complicated place , and I'm so sorry for your experience , Jean , but I do appreciate you sharing that with us. You know , you say the silencing of Latina survivors has created space for a retelling of history. Tell me why that is. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. I mean , so we have this tendency in our society to tell a history of male saviors , um , and to invest a lot of our hope , um , in , in men and in heroes. You know , this , this mythology of heroes. And what this story has done is it's led to a reckoning with that and this realization that the real hero , as one of the survivors put it in the story , is is not the man , not any man. It's it's the it's the movement. It's the community. It's all of us working together , sacrificing for each other , struggling for each other. And it's difficult work , and it requires all of us. And so one of the things that I'm most heartened by is , like , I've seen all these women , this organization , and what I'm hoping for is that this is going to move beyond social media and , you know , move out of Instagram and TikTok to the kitchen table , move from public condemnation to private conversation , because , you know , we had the MeToo movement a few years ago and that , you know , it was loud and then it was over. Um , and then there was a real backlash. And I feel like the real transformation , the real reckoning , is going to happen when we meet in person and have these overdue conversations within our families , within our movements. And I was really heartened by this town hall that I attended last night for survivors , that was organized in Boyle Heights in Los Angeles by groups like justice for My Sister and Mujeres in My Youth , where survivors were given space to be heard and to be held in their experiences. And there was also a lot of talk of restorative justice , which I don't see happening on social media , like on social media. The focus is really about canceling and platforming and and shaming all of these other individuals. There's a lot of men who are currently being called out on social media in in the wake of the revelations , and I think what's important is for us to remember that we are under sustained attack by a fascist regime , and we need to be strong and we cannot decapitate ourselves. Um , but this has the potential to be a real healing moment. And I'm seeing it in these in-person meetings where people are providing space to survivors , um , showing up for each other and at the same time holding men accountable in a way that feels really constructive to me , where men are being told you guys are the ones who have to lead the the restorative justice efforts. Because so many women are so traumatized and triggered by their experiences like they can't be. The agency cannot fall on the survivors to also lead restorative justice efforts like.
S1: It is.
S3: Where these men have to do. It.
S1: It. It is. Yeah. All of that is where collective healing begins. For all of this , I've been speaking with journalist and author Jean Guerrero. Her Substack is called UN silencing. Jean. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
S3: Thanks , Jade.
S1: That's our show for today.
S4: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
