Outrage over César Chávez’s legacy amid allegations of sexual abuse is seeping into California classrooms, prompting teachers, academics and school systems to quickly adjust lessons about one of California’s most widely taught historical figures.
Educators on K-12 and university campuses are rewriting lesson plans, reorganizing discussions and preparing for difficult conversations with students about the life of a labor leader and conflict.
Educators say they don’t have the luxury of waiting for new district, state or university guidance. Instead, they navigate in real time, with little more than evolving news, student input and their own judgment to guide them.
“Normal classroom strategy went out the window,” said Kimberly Young, who teaches citizenship studies at Culver City High School and led a discussion last week about the allegations first revealed in the New York Times.
At UCLA, Chicana/o and Central American Studies are complaining about how to present Chávez’s influence in civil society after they voted to remove his name from the department’s title. Teachers are busy answering students’ questions, anger and confusion about a person whose name and books are heavily embedded in the government’s curriculum and celebrations.
Staff at a Los Angeles library say they are stocking the shelves with children’s books related to Chávez. But they are prepared to ask questions from parents, if asked, and explain the articles published before suspicions arise.
The California Department of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District issued statements that educators should de-emphasize the importance of teaching about Chávez as an individual and instead focus on the struggle of the farm workers he was at the heart of. Educators across the state are exploring how to approach thoughtful, age-appropriate content as they navigate the inexcusable personal behavior alleged by his accusers.
“At a time like this, you can’t avoid talking about César Chávez in class,” said Gabriel Gutierrez, chair of the Department of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies at Cal State Northridge, one of the largest programs of its kind in the nation. “We already knew he was a controversial figure, and now we have to face this and investigate him directly.”
Kimberly Young’s race studies class at Culver City High School recently focused on discussing ideas and media representation. The youth recently voted to add the allegations of César Chávez to the class discussion.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
High schools
At Culver City High School, Young’s 12th grade ethnic studies class was in the middle of a unit on stereotyping, racial and ethnic representation and media literacy when the news broke. On Thursday morning, he asked the students if they knew the revelations. About half did so – via TikTok and Instagram feeds.
Young played a podcast about the allegations and gave readers an update.
“I said, ‘thoughts, feelings, reactions, questions, where are we now?’ And the hands are shooting in the air.”
Students expressed anger and disgust. They said they were concerned about bad news for the large Latino population at a time of civil strife over challenges including immigration raids. Students pointed out that Chávez’s name was quickly erased from the streets while the name and image of President Trump – accused by many women of sexual harassment, all allegations Trump denies – were added to public buildings and institutions.
Young, who also oversees the school’s comprehensive civics program, said Chávez’s name “came up” in classrooms during his ten years teaching in Culver City. But he said that ethnic studies “are really trying to embed voices that have been historically marginalized, so that we don’t embed his narrative in our classrooms.”
“It is very important that students do not pretend to be one god of history, one person, but understand the motive and the movement,” said Young.
Mention the syllabus and answers
More broadly, Chávez is an important figure in many California studies and serves as a Latino and libertarian icon in the country of the Democratic Alliance. His legacy has been treated – until now – as safe to celebrate in schools.
His presence is especially evident on March 31, César Chávez Day, with the country’s Department of Education offering extensive curriculum, multilingual biographies, and service-learning activities. Lessons at all grade levels highlight his social values, personal life and influence.
Artist MisterAlek replaces a portrait of César Chávez in a mural he created in 2021 with a portrait of Dolores Huerta at the Watts/Century Latino Organization in Los Angeles on Friday.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
The Los Angeles Unified School District said it would continue this year to take the day off that had been planned to celebrate Chávez’s birthday.
“We are evaluating the impact it will have on our education system, just like the holidays,” acting LA schools Supt. Andres Chait said last week.
Federal law also requires instructions on Chávez, the farm workers’ union and the role of immigrants. Appears in social science levels, English studies, and American heroes and biography writing units.
In the state’s national studies curriculum, Chávez is taught along with other key figures such as Dolores Huerta and Filipino American labor leader Larry Itliong, with an emphasis on the broader farm worker movement and its various contributors.
In a statement Thursday, the state Department of Education said “schools and teachers are encouraged to teach about the farm worker movement as a struggle that is bigger than one individual, and the California Department of Education will be revising educational resources to support this change.”
Courses depend on age
While an open discussion of allegations may be appropriate for older students, elementary students need a different approach, said Cal State Northridge professor Theresa Montaño, a Chicano and Chicana studies expert who is helping develop the state’s civics curriculum.
To young children, “I would explain that something serious has happened and that adults feel that it is time to remove Chávez’s name from institutions such as schools and holidays.”
Among Pomona Unified’s part-time kindergarten teachers, there has been little talk so far about how to approach the Chávez holiday, which state lawmakers want to rename in honor of farm workers. Ana Tramp, TK teacher expert, expects that many will skip the topic.
In the temporary nursery, “important themes are centered around fairness and helping others,” he said, avoiding any direct discussion about one person.
“It makes you rethink, ‘How am I going to present these people who represent certain traits of character that we want our children to hold or live up to, right?'” Trump said.
Joanna Fabicon, who teaches contemporary children’s literature at UCLA, added that teachers, librarians and publishers must all confront the allegations against Chávez and decide how to move forward.
“What are you doing now?” Fabicon said. “Are they withdrawing? New versions? Are they looking at other leaders in the movement that were overshadowed by César Chávez?”
For now, the allegations won’t change the Los Angeles Public Library’s selection of children’s books, said Phoebe Guiot, associate director of youth services. Families can decide whether to test them.
“The role of the library is to maintain a diverse collection, even if some of the content may be uninteresting,” said Guiot, noting the materials can be updated upon request.
higher education
Chávez was part of a broader Chicano movement that inspired the creation of university Chicano studies departments. Faculty and students reacted quickly – and not all agreed.
At UCLA, professors in the Chicana/o and Central American Studies program — whose founding days of the 1993 hunger strike shaped Chávez’s style — voted to remove his name from the department. The leaders took him out of the conference room.
But he will not be removed from teaching, said department chair Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda.
“We will have to review this statement and not only see him as a man of good character but as a man with flaws,” he said. “That also teaches us that some very moral people can be deeply flawed and that we have to stay vigilant and demanding.”
Workers cover the mural honoring César Chávez in César Chávez Cove at the César Chávez Business and Computer Center at Santa Ana College on Thursday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
In his first lecture, the professor usually starts the class by showing slides highlighting a quote from Chávez: “Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot teach him how to read.
This quote will remain in his study, said Hinojosa-Ojeda, because he never saw it as being about “Chávez the man.” The quote is about “the power of critical education and community development,” he said.
Luis Sotillo, a PhD student in the program, said a large scale calculation is needed. He pointed to Chávez’s treatment of undocumented immigrants, a leader he accused of threatening union power with a 1970s effort to report them to federal authorities. Chávez has also faced criticism for trying to discredit his opponents by accusing them of being communists, a practice known as “red-baiting.”
Sotillo said “the recognition of César Chávez in our department has been controversial since before I arrived.” He said long-standing questions about Chávez’s record “led many of us to turn our backs on his orthodoxy.”
At Irvine Valley College, English professor Lisa Alvarez also plans to speak about Chávez’s legacy as the March 31 holiday approaches. She volunteered for the United Farm Workers as a young woman, was arrested along with Chávez and other activists at the Nevada Test Site protest in 1987 and attended his funeral.
He will be updating his PowerPoint slides “to talk about this figure and what we can learn about what he does for people and what he does to people.”
“It’s always good for the truth to come out,” Alvarez said. “Especially when it’s the hard truth.”
Employees newspaper columnist Gustavo Arellano contributed in this report.
