# Abuse allegations against Cesar Chavez **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 18, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555 "2026-03-18T18:42:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/144 "2026-03-22T00:12:26Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > This is such a frustrating attitude. What do you think it says to current perpetrators and their victims when rape is ignored because it happened in the past? You want to send a message to current perpetrators? Arrest them and put them in prison. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/146 "2026-03-22T00:31:50Z")
> [@On another topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1029424/33): > > But whatta bout the .001% of false accusations? Fake accusations, where the so called “victim” is making it up are rare. But false accusations are not so rare. Remember the McMartin pre-school case? There were a bunch of those. And the kids- by and large- werent lying. Those _were_ their memories- “recovered memories”- when you hear that term- get out your cynics eye. So, when it is nothing but memories- the victim is almost never lying- but the memories might be false anyway. I hope you can see the difference- in the Biden case it was all fake. In other cases- the memories are real- but are they true? The victim is honest, they believe what happened. This also happens when a biased interviewer looking for a Big Story- leads the witness into saying things that they originally didnt think they remembered. Memories can be lead or even created by bad questioning- there are several documented studies on this. > [@TroutMan](#): > > It’s easy to read this as suggesting it would be better if this had all been kept under wraps. No, Better, MUCH better to have been revealed earlier, but sometimes you cant. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/147 "2026-03-22T00:40:56Z")
I want to send a message to _future_ perpetrators. Show them that having money or power or prestige doesn’t give you the right to force yourself on women and girls, and if you can’t keep your dick in your pants, then regardless of whatever good you thknk you did in the world, we will destroy your legacy and make your name into a curse. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/148 "2026-03-22T00:44:08Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So, when it is nothing but memories- the victim is almost never lying- but the memories might be false anyway. Recovered memories are bullshit but that kind of thing usually happens during hypnosis or with patients who already have a tenuous grip on reality. It’s not even close to the norm. Your take on this is highly insulting to victims. The implication that we can’t possibly know our own minds is galling rape-culture bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/149 "2026-03-22T00:56:41Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > The implication that we can’t possibly know our own minds is galling rape-culture bullshit. What @spiceweasel said. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/150 "2026-03-22T01:04:54Z")
Or, for that matter, boys and men. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/151 "2026-03-22T01:17:45Z")
Interesting take. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_FIeAYZjGpE/maxresdefault.jpg "The Truth About Dolores Huerta… (And the Cesar Chavez Allegations)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FIeAYZjGpE) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/152 "2026-03-22T01:23:10Z")
What’s the TLDW for those of that don’t have time to watch a half hour video? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/153 "2026-03-22T01:28:04Z")
Exactly. @SuntanLotion – IMO, “Interesting take” isn’t really any better than a bare link. Why do you think it’s an interesting take? Can you share a few words on what’s in that long video that you find interesting? ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/154 "2026-03-22T01:55:07Z")
He says she should have spoken up long ago, as if the Movement was more important than protecting other women. Many of the men we’ve admired have been flawed, sadly. Not exactly a long video ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/155 "2026-03-22T02:47:19Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Recovered memories are bullshit but that kind of thing usually happens during hypnosis or with patients who already have a tenuous grip on reality. It can also happen with leading questions. Several studies proved that. In one people were shown a short film where 3 men got out of a car, did some crime (for the movie) and then got back in. When the subjects were asked questions like “When the four men got out of the car, which way did they go?”- it changed their memories to now remember four men, not three. Really, this is not my opinion, this is science- > **[Neuroscience of Enduring Change](https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fXXnDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA11&dq=how+memories+can+be+changed&ots=w5a07tfP6D&sig=OVXD3pnqzyE2ouIQE-mxP6TWv18#v=onepage&q=how%20memories%20can%20be%20changed&f=false)** > > Neuroscience of Enduring Change is founded on the premise that all major psychotherapy modalities producing enduring change do so by virtue of corrective emotional experiences that alter problematic memories through the process of reconsolidation.... [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mar.1000](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mar.1000) > The increased confidence is consistent with the notion that autobiographical referencing can lead to the creation of false or distorted memory. [https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn1054](https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn1054) > The malleability of memory is becoming increasingly clear. Many influences can cause memories to change or even be created anew, including our imaginations and the leading questions or different recollections of others. The knowledge that we cannot rely on our memories, however compelling they might be, leads to questions about the validity of criminal convictions that are based largely on the testimony of victims or witnesses. Our scientific understanding of memory should be used to help the legal system to navigate this minefield. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27849223](https://www.jstor.org/stable/27849223) All these are from Google Scholar. There are many more. [https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/memory-manipulated](https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/memory-manipulated) > Our memories may not be as reliable as we think. Once we experience an event, most of us likely assume that those memories stays intact forever. But there is the potential for memories to be altered or for completely false memories to be planted, according to Elizabeth Loftus, PhD. Loftus, a distinguished professor at the University of California, Irvine, is an expert on human memory and she discusses how our recollections of events and experiences may be subject to manipulation. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/156 "2026-03-22T11:09:09Z")
Moderating: > [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > > > Recovered memories are bullshit but that kind of thing usually happens during hypnosis or with patients who already have a tenuous grip on reality. > > It can also happen with leading questions. This is way off topic. @DrDeth , you have already acknowledged there is evidence that Chavez did what he’s alleged to have done. If you want to argue about the general accuracy of rape victims, please start a new thread for that. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/157 "2026-03-22T11:31:11Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I want to send a message to _future_ perpetrators. Show them that having money or power or prestige doesn’t give you the right to force yourself on women and girls, and if you can’t keep your dick in your pants, then regardless of whatever good you thknk you did in the world, we will destroy your legacy and make your name into a curse. This. Perfectly put. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/158 "2026-03-22T15:10:14Z")
The human tendency to idolize fallible fragile fellow human beings is regrettable but probably never going to change. If only we could decide to laud the cause they publicly served, rather than setting up a golden statue with feet of clay. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/159 "2026-03-22T18:12:12Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > My question is Why now? For one: because at the time when it happened she, not he, would have gotten a whole lot of shit for it. You weren’t a woman living then. I was. She’d have gotten ‘why were you alone with him if you didn’t want to screw him?’ For two: because it would have been used to attack the entire movement; quite possibly successfully. > [@SuntanLotion](#): > > He says she should have spoken up long ago Anyone who doesn’t understand why any rape wasn’t reported fifty years ago doesn’t understand the situation fifty years ago. (And I suspect men were even less likely to report, if for slightly different reasons.) The astonishing thing is that any rapes were reported. Unless you were entirely physically overwhelmed by a total stranger in a location everyone acknowledged you had reason to think was entirely safe, and could prove every bit of that, you’d almost certainly be told by most people that it was your own fault. Any conviction would be massively unlikely; and, while the rapist’s reputation might be somewhat damaged, the accuser’s would be more so. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/160 "2026-03-22T18:42:11Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > For one: because at the time when it happened she, not he, would have gotten a whole lot of shit for it. There are fifty years between “when it happened” and today. Chavez died in 1993. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Anyone who doesn’t understand why any rape wasn’t reported fifty years ago doesn’t understand the situation fifty years ago. Sure, that is true. But i didnt ask 'why not when it happened?" which has a reasonable answer. I asked “why now?” And the answers I was given are understandable, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/161 "2026-03-22T20:50:20Z")
So you want to completely invade whatever privacy those two women (other than Ms Huerta) have had over the years and force them to explain why they didn’t report this before? You are trying desperately hard to make your unreasonable arguments, which you yourself have recanted in this thread, seem reasonable. They were not reasonable when you first made them, and they are less so now. You have no standing of any kind to demand anything from those women. > [@DrDeth](#): > > the answers I was given are understandable Then why are you still arguing about it? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/162 "2026-03-22T21:31:22Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Anyone who doesn’t understand why any rape wasn’t reported fifty years ago doesn’t understand the situation fifty years ago. ( > [@DrDeth](#): > > There are fifty years between “when it happened” and today. Point of order: 1966 was _sixty_ years ago, not fifty. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/163 "2026-03-22T22:32:16Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Then why are you still arguing about it? I am not. Note that > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > For one: because at the time when it happened she, not he, would have gotten a whole lot of shit for it. Asked me a question. > [@NDP](#): > > My overwhelming impression is that this is something Huerta, perhaps out of guilt over not saying anything sooner, wants to get off her chest before she passes on. Beyond that, my conspiratorial sense suggests that, because the UFW seems to be a mostly ineffectual shadow of what it once was, many activists prefer that it die so they can start over with a vibrant new farm labor organization unencumbered by the Chavez-related baggage. Finally spilling the dirty secrets about the UFW’s most well-known founder makes it a lot easier to pull the plug. This answer was quite acceptable. I asked, and was answered. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2026, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555/164 "2026-03-22T23:21:39Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Point of order: 1966 was _sixty_ years ago, not fifty. Thanks. Still seems like yesterday, sometimes. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Asked me a question. I did? I thought I made a statement. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abuse-allegations-against-cesar-chavez/1028555.md?page=9)