The books that created the César Chávez myth — and those that brought him down
Your morning catch-up: The written legacy of César Chávez, the best places to eat and drink in L.A. this month and more big stories
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Covered marquees. Downed statues. Painted-over murals. A canceled holiday.
California has effectively exorcised César Chávez from the public sphere just weeks after a New York Times investigation found two women who said the legendary labor leader sexually assaulted them when they were teenage girls in the 1970s. Just as explosive was the revelation by his longtime lieutenant, Dolores Huerta, that he raped her in the 1960s.
My prediction for the next place we’ll see a Chávez purge: books about him, which number into the dozens and span from academic treatises to children’s tales. But before critics relegate those texts to the banned section, folks should read some of them to see how writers helped establish the Chávez myth and propagated it for decades.
The books that created the Chávez legend
The tendency to elevate him above other activists was there from the start. In 1967, John Gregory Dunne published “Delano: The Story of the California Grape Strike,” which saw the author (and husband to Joan Didion) capture the essence of el movimiento in its earliest days through on-the-ground reporting and interviews with Chávez, whom Dunne described in the introduction as “the right man at the right place at what was, sadly, both the right and the wrong time.”
Famed writer Peter Matthiessen cemented Chávez’s image as a humble hero fighting a lone, brave battle against philistine farmers with a two-part New Yorker profile that became the basis for 1969s “Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution.” That narrative continued with Jacques Levy’s 1975 release “Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa.” Talk about getting too close to the subject: The author’s archived papers disclosed he served as Chávez’s literal notetaker during the 1970 negotiations that ended the grape strike and led to the UFW’s first union contracts.
Chávez came under strong scrutiny
Rose-tinted biographies tellingly stopped around the time Chávez created a commune in what’s now currently the César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene and began to target perceived enemies within the UFW. Critics instead appeared in the media — one of the first was a 1979 Reason article that alleged he was misusing federal funds and contained the prescient line, “Many people will be reluctant to believe anything that could cast a shadow over this man.”
Other critical dispatches included pieces in the L.A. Times, Village Voice and one in the Sacramento Bee so damning in its indictment of how Chávez had, on his own, sabotaged the movement so many associated with him that its author, Marcos Breton, recently wrote how Chávez was left “hostile and angry” by his simple questions.
In the wake of Chávez’s decline and eventual death in 1993, authors created a new genre: Saint César. Titles like “Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence,” “Conquering Goliath: Cesar Chavez at the Beginning” (by his mentor, Fred Ross Sr., the most important California organizer you’ve never heard of) and “The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez” pushed forth the gospel of their subject as a plainspoken prophet out of the Good Book.
Chávez inspired millions — but those books will now forever read as hollow and sadly myopic.
Rethinking the Chávez myth
True reappraisals of Chávez and his work wouldn’t start until after former Times editor and reporter Miriam Pawel published a 2006 series for this paper that showed the ugly, domineering side of Chávez and the UFW’s decline. Six years later, longtime activist Frank Bardacke simultaneously praised and damned Chávez in his “Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers.” Though a good read, it pales in importance and poignant lyricism to two double whammies that dropped in 2014: “From the Jaws of Victory The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement” by Dartmouth College professor (and my distant cousin!) Matthew Garcia and Pawel’s own “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography.”
Garcia and Pawel are now making media appearances and writing essays to opine on where they think Chávez went wrong. Expect updates to all of these books and so many others in the months and years to come — if they’re ever published again.
Today’s top stories
Weird rattlesnake season
- Unseasonably warm March weather triggered an unusually active rattlesnake season in California, with experts fielding record calls about sightings statewide.
- Two fatal bites in Southern California in March and 77 Poison Control calls in three months far exceed typical annual patterns.
Life after California
- A new UC Berkeley study found that people who moved out of California dramatically improved their financial conditions.
- Those former Californians said the move saved them almost $700 in monthly housing costs, and they became 48% more likely to own a home in their new state.
Minimal snow in California mountains
- An extremely warm March has left very little snow in California’s Sierra Nevada. The snowpack now measures just 18% of average.
- The early melt is a symptom of global warming that scientists say is becoming more pronounced.
More big stories
- Gas just hit $6 in Los Angeles. Here’s where you can still find it for $5.
- A serial arsonist terrorized Hollywood. It ended only after two sisters died in a house fire, authorities say.
- In L.A. mayor’s race, a controversial poll shows Nithya Raman ahead of Karen Bass.
- The Supreme Court says state bans on “conversion therapy” violate counselors’ free speech rights.
- Most California voters still disapprove of Trump’s immigration crackdown, a poll shows.
- Hollywood rallies around former L.A. Zoo elephants Billy and Tina as they reportedly suffer in Tulsa.
Commentary and opinions
- Columnist Mark Z. Barabak asks, is California really going to elect a Republican governor?
- The golden idol at the center of Trump’s presidential library is a terrible idea — even for him, argues culture critic Mary McNamara.
This morning’s must read
Inglewood’s historic Market Street gets an $8.5 million boost as local restaurants receive grants to renovate storefronts and revitalize the city’s corridor.
Other great reads
- Autistic people are more likely to experience suicidal crisis. 988 is changing to serve them better.
- The Dodgers’ $68.99 Shohei Ohtani soda cup comes with sticker shock on the side. It might still be a deal.
For your downtime
Going out
- Restaurants: The best places to eat and drink this month, according to our Food writers.
- Festivals: Stop and smell the native plants at the L.A. Times Plants booth at Festival of Books.
Staying in
- Television: Dan Levy wanted to explore family trauma and dysfunction. So he made “Big Mistakes,” premiering on Netflix April 9.
- Recipe: Here’s a recipe for lemon chiffon pie.
- ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games.
A question for you: How are you celebrating Easter this year?
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And finally ... the photo of the day
Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Ronaldo Bolaños at Tuesday night’s Dodgers’ game. Shohei Ohtani battled through the rain to throw a one-hit gem in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend reporter
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
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