I am not totally surprised about the Cesar Chavez bombshell

If you haven't heard, it's statements he committed some sort of child sexual abuse, and also adult sexual assault, including raping Dolores Huerta:

“The first time I was manipulated and pressured into having sex with him, and I didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to,” Huerta said in a statement published online. “The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.”

Wow. 

That NBC piece and others ultimately refer to an in-depth New York Times story. 

Two other women say they were molested as girls, one of them raped, more than once. It's bad, if you've not read.

Why am I not surprised? Though not even hinting at something like this, a critical bio of Chavez written about 15 years ago, "The Crusades of Cesar Chavez," referenced his authoritarian leadership and other problems.

On Huerta, as for why not earlier? She addressed that; and of course, corporate farm owners would have exploited this, and police certainly would have.

As for why now? She's clearing the slate of life at age 95. 

As for why not later than the 1970s but earlier than now? The UFW and la familia:

A handful of Mr. Chavez’s relatives and former U.F.W. leaders have been aware for years about various allegations of sexual misconduct, but there is no evidence that they made efforts to fully investigate the accusations, acknowledge the victims or apologize to them. Instead, many of the women say they were discouraged from speaking out in order to preserve Mr. Chavez’s public image.

There you go.

Chavez has long been dead, but his legacy has to be preserved. The book is rated at under 4 stars on Goodreads, probably in part for that reason. 

That said, the NYT notes that Pawel's "Crusades" and one other bio referenced other sex issues of Chavez:

Elements of Mr. Chavez’s extramarital affairs with adult women were chronicled in at least two biographies, Matt Garcia’s “From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement,” published in 2012, and Miriam Pawel’s “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography,” published in 2014.

And, the Times went beyond that: 

While Mr. Chavez had eight children with his wife, Helen Chavez, the Times investigation showed that he also fathered at least four children with three other women. Two of these children and other family members were interviewed and confirmed the relationship. Additionally, 23andMe match results were reviewed for the four children, and they confirmed Mr. Chavez’s biological ties in each case.

That's why it was low-rated. 

And, while Huerta's allegations have not been verified, Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas have both talked to multiple people over a period of years. 

And, reportedly, one of Huerta's kids with Chavez came from that rape of her. 

Basically, Chavez' La Paz site came off to me in Pawel's book as a quasi-Jonestown. (Chavez, when wearing the aviator shades, even looks a bit like a Hispanic Jim Jones.) The book even notes, as does Garcia's, that he borrowed tools from Synanon.

As for the fears of reaction? Yeah, with Strangeabbott officially saying the state will not observe March 31 this year as Cesar Chavez Day and he would ask next year's Lege to permanently kill it, that's why.