Believe Women: 'My Silence Ends Here'

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LISTENING: to my first dance song (above!)
FEELING: a mixture of too many emotions
SEEING: an empty apartment after my best friend left :(

In 2022, I interviewed Dolores Huerta for Atmos. She's a leader in the labor movement. She helped galvanize a generation of farmworkers to give them the protections they have today. The movement is still fighting.

On Wednesday, the New York Times published an investigation on Cesar Chavez, her fellow activist. The newspaper reported on a pattern of sexual assault and abuse, including against Huerta, who broke her silence only after the article's publication.

Imagine holding in a secret that huge for 60 years. Having to smile when people mention your abuser — all for the movement you helped create. Huerta published a statement, writing:

I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work. The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farmworkers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights.

I have never identified myself as a victim, but I now understand that I am a survivor — of violence, of sexual abuse, of domineering men who saw me, and other women, as property, or things to control.

She ended the statement with these words: "I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here."

This news breaks my heart. Huerta never spoke out because she didn't want to risk harming her life's work. But how did a movement built on justice and human rights allow such an ugly man to play such a big role? How many other women are there in the climate movement, for instance, keeping their secrets close because they don't want to risk injuring their peers? Because they don't want their pain to be weaponized by the right?

All this reminds me why intersectionality is so important. Why women must take up space. Why we must believe women and hold powerful men accountable. Why we must expect the world of the people we put in power, especially men. It's Women's History Month, after all. We owe it to the women who came before us to speak out and prevent the next generation from dealing with the sexism, machismo, and abuse that our ancestors and we have faced.

The world is facing a reckoning over this. Look at the Epstein files and the uproar they have caused. Look at the president sitting in the White House. There's not yet enough uproar over all this.

As Huerta told me back in 2022: "The focus has got to be on our political leaders."

If we let them get away with their egregious actions, who else are we giving permission to? What climate and environmental activists and leaders are doing harm? How many women are silently suffering? When is enough enough? 🌀

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