An East San José Teacher Reckons With Cesar Chavez’s Legacy

Victoria Duran grew up in East San José, and remembers celebrating her community’s ties to labor activist and United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez. His legacy looms large on the East Side, where he held his first organizing meetings and where his former home still stands. But for many people in San José, that sense of pride was shattered after a New York Times’ investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by Chavez.

Now Duran, who teaches ethnic studies and psychology at William C. Overfelt High School in East San José, is reckoning with how to teach about Chavez in light of these sexual abuse allegations.

Links:

• Why This City’s Reckoning With Cesar Chavez Is So Complicated (NYTimes)

Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.

Episode transcript

This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:00] I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted. Cesar Chavez has been a big part of California history for decades. But his legacy looms especially large in East San Jose, where the co-founder of the United Farm Workers held his first organizing meetings and where his former home still stands today. And for Victoria Duran, who grew up on San Jose’s East Side in the 90s, Chavez was celebrated as a hometown hero.

Victoria Duran [00:00:40] A sense of pride, a sense of honor, a sense of recognition of someone who was for the people was what was really cultivated at an early age.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:52] But last month, The New York Times published an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against Chavez, including allegations of rape by co-organizer Dolores Huerta. And for Duran, who teaches ethnic studies at William C. Overfelt High School in East San Jose now, she has to reckon with how to teach about the legacy of Cesar Chavez to the next generation of East Side kids.

Victoria Duran [00:01:26] One of the in-class responses to that was, “so we were lied to this entire time?”

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:01:34] Today, how one ethnic studies teacher in East San Jose is reckoning with the legacy of Cesar Chavez.

Victoria Duran [00:01:52] My name is Dr. Victoria Isabel Duran, and I am from East San Jose. I am the daughter of working class parents who had visions and really instilled with us just a desire and love for community and I come from grandparents who’ve worked the fields and I feel deeply seated from a land and a place that holds rich history.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:27] So you grew up in East San Jose, you’re from there. What was that like for you growing up in east San Jose? And I’m also curious what your earliest memories of learning about Cesar Chavez were.

Victoria Duran [00:02:40] I attended a school led by a Chicana principal, which I thought was really powerful in the 90s. And in that, when I think of Cesar Chavez, as we would line up for lunch, I remember the image of him, where you would see the fields and then the skulls and then figures embedded in the signs. And that would be something that I would see daily.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:02] Like a mural?

Victoria Duran [00:03:03] It wasn’t a mural, it was an art piece of him in the cafeteria.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:06] Oh wow.

Victoria Duran [00:03:07] And that was consistently there. What really comes to mind is a sense of pride, a sense honor, a sense recognition of someone who was for the people.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:20] And he was rooted in the same community you were.

Victoria Duran [00:03:24] Growing up.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:24] Yeah, you had that connection.

Victoria Duran [00:03:27] Ties to the Guadalupe Church, recognizing that his home was here and, you know, attending in middle school and high school, there were competitions for art, annual luncheons, and gatherings to be able to bring student performers in the context of his legacy and just recognizing that through heroes, through historical figures, there is a sense of mapping out what the disability looks like in our own activism. And so attending these, it was a lot of honor, a lot of seeing yourself.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:04] It’s such a, I feel like a unique way to grow up, to see yourself reflected in history, to feel that so close to home. And obviously now you teach back in East San Jose. I’m curious before the news how you were teaching the history of Cesar Chavez, especially as a teacher rooted in East San Jose and having. This upbringing and this connection to that history.

Victoria Duran [00:04:35] We had a moment where we would unpack and analyze music, the chants, having an understanding of materials that were shared, news clippings, audio recordings.

Cesar Chavez [00:04:49] And we went to the people of this country and we said, in whichever way we could, with leaflets, going to meetings, to students, to union meetings, to church meetings, and everywhere and anywhere that they would have us. And we told the people in America, help us, we need your help. And they responded.

Victoria Duran [00:05:05] And students came in with a critique, right, where students also began to expand that, oh, he didn’t fight for everybody.

Cesar Chavez [00:05:16] These are the illegals from Mexico. As long as we have a poor country bordering California, it’s gonna be very difficult to win strikes, so therefore the only way to win strike is by then taking our fight to the citizens.

Victoria Duran [00:05:32] He had feelings about Mexicans, undocumented folks, and we, you know, through the language and terminology of ethnic studies, recognizing that as xenophobia. And recognizing that, okay, if, you, know, students amongst the class, like, who would not be represented within the movement? When students critique that you know they come in and are just kind of wary…and then others just, well, what do you mean? This is someone who’s always been revered and recognized within my community. And so then they begin to have that exchange and unpacking, which is powerful.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:16] I mean, it sounds like, you know, this critique was already happening in your classrooms around Cesar Chavez, but obviously on March 18th, the New York Times published this investigation that found, I mean very extensive evidence that he groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the movement for years. And do you remember where you were when you found out this news?

Victoria Duran [00:06:45] I’m thankful that one of my alumni students reached out to me. He offered me. Want to offer you some caution as you interact with the news these next days. Some information came out around Cesar Chavez. It was kind of one of those things, like I don’t know that I’m ready to even search up the information at that moment. So I allowed myself that space after school and I started to read and learn about and just feeling like a weight on your chest of — how devastating. Here we are.

Victoria Duran [00:07:30] I found that out on the 18th. I had the day off on the 19th for myself. And on the 20th, I went back to school. So I was able to go into the conversations with some rest. I said, I will respond if students say they’re ready. And my first period of that day, they said, “are we gonna talk about this?” And I said of course, what questions do you have? One of the in-class responses was, “so we were lied to this entire time.” “I chanted for him. I marched for him!” “We have these things at schools for him, what do you mean? Did he do no good?” “Why are they moving so fast to remove his monuments when we’ve heard of these Epstein cases and the files and the harms done here? Why isn’t accountability being held across?” And these were honest, in real time questions.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:08:46] How do you respond to that?

Victoria Duran [00:08:48] Your feelings are valid. And I don’t think you’re alone, feeling that alone right now. I had one student in particular who offered. I did not participate in elementary school on these marches. And I was shamed by my peers and by teachers and adults because my family and I had a critique of him already. We are not a monolith in how we regard a person, especially with rooted within the context of Eastside and the history.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:20] And what are these that you brought? Just their written responses in the days?

Victoria Duran [00:09:24] Yes. After the news? This is some of their art from watching a documentary. So after the news, we went into an overview of patriarchy, sexism, and intersectionality to preface and guide into watching Dolores. When we watched Dolores, there were also segments from her childhood and to her adulthood, and then they left with a sense of… Oh, look at these interactions between Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and one in particular when he spoke about the role of women and that they are to be protected.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:02] Oh, gosh, wow.

Victoria Duran [00:10:04] And I asked myself, should I pause it? I said, are you all ready for this? Is this something that you wanna discuss? And they said that we do.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:13] It’s like amazing to see some of this art and some of the things that they have on here. I mean, this drawing of a woman. I’m assuming it’s Dolores Huerta covering her mouth. I feel like what you’re describing is your students very much, and also you as a teacher, really navigating this news in real time. How does this news change? How you’re thinking about teaching the history of Cesar Chavez. I mean, he will always be someone who played a big role in history, right? And who will always have this connection to San Jose, but how are you thinking about how you now acknowledge the harm?

Victoria Duran [00:10:58] I’m thinking about the feeling of driving up here and seeing Cesar Chavez, Portola Avenue, right? There’s a responsibility, right, and shaping, and I think that’s where the agency of young people, when they shape a curriculum too, because ethnic studies within San Jose is a different experience of ethnic studies within San Francisco, within any other region. There’s deep grief. Challenging work and I think part of, you know, moving from this too was what are the necessary elements of a proper apology. How do we name the harm that occurs? How do we establish consent and young people want to practice and talk about that? I can only measure how I move forward as an educator being responsive to what students craft together with me.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:12:06] I know it’s been a couple of weeks now since this news, maybe for other people outside of East San Jose, this has sort of faded, you know? It’s not something they’re thinking about. Maybe they don’t have a street near them named after Cesar Chavez. But for you, teaching ethnic studies, being rooted in this place that’s so connected to him and his legacy, is this still coming up for you on the day-to-day?

Victoria Duran [00:12:33] Yes.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:12:36] And you’re still navigating it. You’re still figuring it out.

Victoria Duran [00:12:39] Yes. It illuminates how patriarchy functions and how we’re all participants, as bell hooks says. I look to this as a reminder of, okay, do we have our heroes? Do we have, like, situating the stories around an individual person? Because a sustaining movement is focused on the movement. The work runs deep. This didn’t happen overnight. And the repair and healing is not gonna be overnight. And it is gonna be generational.