{"id":48955,"date":"2026-04-17T14:09:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=48955"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:38:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:38:32","slug":"why-we-chose-to-air-a-racial-slur-in-our-cesar-chavez-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/why-we-chose-to-air-a-racial-slur-in-our-cesar-chavez-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Chose to Air a Racial Slur in \ufeffOur Cesar Chavez Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In this week\u2019s episode of New Mexico in Focus, I\u2019ve got a story that dives into the generational divide within the Latino and Chicano communities over the recent New York Times investigation that exposed allegations of sexual assault and child rape against United Farm Workers cofounder Cesar Chavez. Among his accusers: New Mexico native Dolores Huerta, with whom Chavez started the union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Times\u2019 revelations aren\u2019t the first time Chavez has drawn scorn \u2014 what many believe were his anti-immigrant views have been well known for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewers who watch my piece will hear something deeply jarring: the word “wetback,” uncensored. We didn\u2019t make the decision to air this word lightly \u2014 and we didn\u2019t make it alone. (More on that later). We are acutely aware of the pain such language carries, particularly in New Mexico. However, as our state grapples with whether to remove Chavez\u2019s name from buildings, streets, schools and elsewhere, we felt that shielding our audience from the reality of his rhetoric would be a disservice to the truth-telling this community demands and deserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historical Context<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavez saw Mexican workers brought in by the U.S. government to replace striking Chicano farm workers as \u201cscabs\u201d who crossed the picket line and drove down wages. Chavez reportedly used the slurs \u201cwetback\u201d and \u201cillegals\u201d \u2014 privately and in public \u2014 to describe them. We found multiple interviews from the 1970s where he uses the word\u2013 some that have been uploaded online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are more examples of his anti-immigrant views. In 1974, he launched an “Illegals Campaign,” which directed UFW members to report undocumented workers to the Immigration and Naturalization Service \u2014- the predecessor to ICE. Chavez also organized what he called “wet lines” along the U.S.- Mexico border \u2014 essentially private border patrol enforcers, who sometimes used violence and intimidation to prevent Mexicans from crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “Sanitized Version\u201d vs. Reality<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, the history of the farmworker movement has been taught through what historian and New Mexico State LULAC Director Javier Marrufo calls a “sanitized version” \u2014 a kid-friendly take on history that removes “distressing details” to present leaders more simply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mireya Martinez, a farmworker and senior at UNM, grew up holding Chavez on a “big pedestal,” only to find her perception flipped when confronted with his full complexity her freshman year. We hoped to air part of Chavez\u2019s 1973 radio interview with KQED in which he uses the slur, but we couldn\u2019t afford the station\u2019s asking price for the clip, so we chose to show Martinez describing when she learned Chavez had used the word instead. We wanted to show exactly why the younger generation feels, in their words, like they were “lied to this whole time.\u201d As Martinez notes, finding out that an idol used such language felt like a “slap to the face.” To her and many of her Gen Z peers, the “good doesn’t outweigh the bad,” and the use of such slurs \u2014 and the meaning behind them \u2014 makes him “actually really evil” in their eyes. We also felt that censoring a Latina who chose to use the word \u2014 however uncomfortably \u2014 to explain her experience would contribute to the whitewashing of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Generational Divide<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also hope our decision to air the word helps the audience to understand the friction between generations. N.M. Rep Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, and her husband Ricardo Cardenas Caballero \u2014 who personally housed, organized with, and protected Chavez \u2014 view the slur through the lens of a different era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roybal Caballero, a baby boomer, argues that Chavez wasn\u2019t a bigot, but instead, was “anti-scab,” frustrated by the federal government’s use of the Bracero program to break union picket lines. She believes Chavez “didn’t do a good job of articulating those relationships,” leaving his language open to “misconstruction.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But younger generations reject this notion. As Marrufo, who is 34, told me, “If his stance was so anti-scab, why was he using all of these racial slurs towards them? Doesn’t really make sense in my mind.” For Marrufo and other millennials, the historical context doesn’t excuse the harm caused by the words themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How We Got There<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we began discussing whether to broadcast the word \u201cwetback,\u201d there was a fair amount of consternation from a few members of our team \u2014 it is a slur after all. After several internal conversations, we decided to expand it. We spoke with friends, other journalists and sources \u2014 including elected officials \u2014 in the Latino\/a and Chicano\/a community to ask how the word would land for them. Most encouraged us to air it \u2014 primarily because Chavez said it, and words have meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another factor: We surmised that many of our viewers may not have known about Chavez\u2019s use of racial slurs. At the same time, we weighed the history and harm words like \u201cwetback\u201d have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we chose to air it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History, as Roybal Caballero reminded us, “goes down good and bad.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ufeff- Cailley Chella, Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n