Jennifer Andrea Porras, now 53, says they were sexually abused by the union leader as a teen
A version of this story was published in Spanish in La Opinión.
When Jennifer Andrea Porras, a non-binary, Indigiqueer, Coahuiltecan artist and cultural worker from the San Francisco Bay Area, first found out about the New York Times investigation detailing allegations by multiple women of sexual abuse by civil rights icon Cesar Chavez, they were not surprised. The news confirmed their own experience with the co-founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union.
“I knew this was coming. I didn’t know how or in what direction it was coming, or who was speaking,” said Porras, now 53. “But I knew because a comadre told me about the cancellation of the Cesar Chavez Day events, and she told me: ‘Sister, I think it’s going to be time.’”
Days after the news broke, as cities across California worked to remove murals, rename streets and get rid of statues of the late Chavez, Porras was dealing with the rumbling and resurfacing of their own trauma tied to the labor movement.
