Martin Heinrich: “The sexual assault, the abuse that Ana Murguia, Debra Rojas, and Dolores Huerta have described is horrific, and it…”

“The sexual assault, the abuse that Ana Murguia, Debra Rojas, and Dolores Huerta have described is horrific, and it necessarily and profoundly changes Cesar Chavez's legacy and how he should be remembered. I am extremely grateful to the women who have courageously stepped forward. Many, like Dolores Huerta, feared that speaking up would enable those who had always opposed the workers movement to erase it, along with Cesar Chavez, and I stand here today to ensure that is never the case. The movement Dolores Huerta and so many others fought for was bigger than any one man, and when we learn shocking or terrible things about our history, the right answer is to tell the truth, never to hide it. I am concerned that what my colleague from Texas is proposing could do just that--hide the truth about Cesar Chavez and, unfortunately, the incredible farmworkers movement with it. The legislation that Senator Cornyn is asking us to approve today would not only abolish the Cesar Chavez National Monument, it could erase the foundational history of the farmworkers movement in the process. It would follow through on the threat that silenced the survivors of Chavez's abuse. Let me be clear. I agree unequivocally that we should no longer have a monument named after Cesar Chavez, but we absolutely should not erase the monument's telling of the story of the farm labor movement.”