The sexual assault allegations against Cesar Chavez were front and center at a town hall meeting here at CSUB with many students saying, there are many lessons to be learned.
“To grow up idolizing a person , just a great person and to see what they’re really capable of really was a disappointment,” said student Linda Gonzalez.
Student Linda Gonzalez is from Delano, with her family being very involved in the farm worker movement as her mother was one of the many to travel to New York to picket with Cesar Chavez himself.
Hearing of the allegations, she says she was heartbroken, and confused. Which is what brought her to attend Thursday’s townhall meeting.
“I really feel that having discussions in a safe space like this opens a door for ways to heal,” said Gonzalez.
The town hall, hosted by CSUB’s ethnic studies department, didn’t just bring together students, but staff and faculty as well to part take in conversations.
Not only were they able to hear from professors and on site counselors, but also had the opportunity to break out into smaller discussion groups.
“I think that it is incumbent upon us to step up to the moment and have these hard conversations even in these hard times before you know other people speak for us and erase our history,” said Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at CSUB Jose Villagran.
Topics of discussions included how people viewed leadership, how to remember the farmworker movement, how to deal with emotions of losing a quote ‘hero’.
While many are still struggling with to understand the impact of these allegations students say there is one common theme, the importance of learning history, both the good and the bad.
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