Roberto Reveles [LRL] My commentary on the rush to destroy Cesar Chavez public memorabilia, and to diminish Mexican American contributions to the nation.

 Like other social justice advocates I too organized, marched, boycotted, and engaged in personal interactions with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in support of the farmworker movement. Like many others, I too am troubled by the recent Cesar and Dolores revelations.

Unlike some, however, I strongly disagree with rushing to destroy every public reference related to the Chavez-Huerta legacy. To impulsively erase or elevate either of our public life icons is to further complicate the already ignored and diminished history of the Mexican American community.

Instead of destruction, I propose preservation and presentation of public sculptures, signage, and memorabilia to be housed in educational and museum institutions within the communities that today are too eager to erase our uncomfortably complicated history that goes beyond the farmworker movement.

Exhibits of rejected honorific objects accompanied by honest and contextual history within such institutions, would constitute a fact-based educational treasure of our nation’s complex history. Instructively Thomas Jefferson’s sexual exploitation of a favored slave has not led to demolition of the Thomas Jefferson monument. A monument that stands in privileged silence while human frailty topples and threatens others of our past and current leaders.

To destroy Cesar Chavez’s and Dolores Huerta’s historic accomplishments is to irrationally cancel the unprecedented contributions of iconic Mexican American figures whose private lives, like that of other national leaders, reflect humanity’s frailty.

Let’s challenge ourselves and all civic groups engaged in today’s rush to judgment.

Let’s unite in promoting preservation, not destruction, of our community's complicated, constructive but unpublicized contributions to achieving our nation’s more perfect union! As educators correctly put it: this is a monumental teaching opportunity. Raise your voices community advocates!

May humanity’s redemptive spirit prevail! As our elders teach us, no hay mal que por bien no venga! Sí Se Puede!

Roberto Reveles

480 251-8580

robertorev@MSN.COM

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