{"id":184287,"date":"2026-04-03T09:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184287\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:35:06","slug":"dartmouth-professors-tip-led-to-new-york-times-investigation-into-cesar-chavez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184287\/","title":{"rendered":"Dartmouth professor\u2019s tip led to New York Times investigation into Cesar Chavez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Latin American, Latino and Caribbean studies professor Matthew Garcia provided the New York Times with the tip about sexual assault allegations against Cesar Chavez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, that prompted a five-year long investigation<\/a> which revealed that Chavez sexually abused girls as young as 12 in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Garcia said he learned of the allegations against Chavez from contacts he made while writing his 2012 book \u201cFrom the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement,\u201d the first work to publicize Chavez\u2019s extramarital affairs with adults.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The contacts forwarded Garcia a post authored by Debra Rojas \u2014 one of the women who says Chavez sexually abused her from 1972 to 1977 \u2014 on a private Facebook group of UFW veterans. In the post, Rojas wrote, in part, \u201cWake up people. This man u march for every year molested me,\u201d according to the New York Times. Garcia sent the post to reporters at the New York Times because he believed they had better investigative resources and because the Cesar Chavez Foundation had displayed \u201caggressive\u201d behavior toward Garcia in the past, Garcia said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cesar Chavez Foundation hated my book,\u201d Garcia said, referring to \u201cFrom the Jaws of Victory.\u201d \u201cThey tried to bury me. They said I lied; they did all kinds of nasty things. I don\u2019t want to have any part of that, but I have friends at the New York Times. So I was the whistleblower.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chavez Foundation and the UFW did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

In an open letter<\/a> on their website, the Chavez Foundation wrote that they are \u201cgrappling with what to do with a name and identity that carries with it so much history, but now also carries so much pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that schools, cities and institutions across the country are wrestling with questions about how to commemorate this legacy and what it means,\u201d the foundation wrote. \u201cThose decisions rightfully belong to those communities. We support and respect whatever paths they choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 19, UFW announced that it had cancelled<\/a> its Cesar Chavez Day activities for that month. Cesar Chavez Day has been a federal commemorative holiday celebrated on March 31 \u2014 Chavez\u2019s birthday \u2014 since 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a women-led organization that exists to empower communities, the allegations about abusive behavior by Cesar Chavez go against everything that we stand for,\u201d the organization wrote in an open statement. \u201cThese disturbing allegations \u2026 are shocking, indefensible and something we are taking seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manny Fernandez, one of the Times\u2019 reporters on the story, said on The Times\u2019 podcast<\/a> \u201cThe Daily\u201d that he first received the tip from Garcia when he was \u201cjust getting settled as the LA Bureau Chief.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe email from [Matthew] Garcia was basically saying, \u2018I didn\u2019t write about this in my book, but there are some things with Cesar Chavez and girls that you should look into,\u2019\u201d Fernandez said on the podcast.<\/p>\n

Garcia said he gave \u201cdirection\u201d to the journalists throughout their five-year investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked me where documents were,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThey\u2019d need me to confirm something or explain some historical fact or identify some person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the publication of the Times\u2019 investigations, institutions around the country have moved to rename holidays<\/a>, schools<\/a> and streets<\/a> that bear his name. Dartmouth\u2019s LALACS department is one of them.<\/p>\n

Since 1994, the LALACS department\u2019s Cesar Chavez Pre-to-Postdoctoral Fellowship in Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies has been one of the most \u201cfamous\u201d in the field, according to Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s coveted,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWhen people get it, they have a leg up in the job market and they win the best positions in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fellowship was created a year after Chavez\u2019s death in 1993, according to LALACS director Desiree Garcia, who is married to Matthew Garcia. Chavez\u2019s last public lecture took place at the College five days before his death, she said.<\/p>\n

Matthew Garcia said the UFW never funded the fellowship, which was named for Chavez on the LALACS department\u2019s \u201cown volition, because he was so important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On March 18, Desiree Garcia called an emergency vote of the LALACS faculty to make a formal request to the Office of the Provost to change the name of the Cesar Chavez Pre-to-Postdoctoral Fellowship.<\/p>\n

The move is \u201clargely symbolic\u201d and \u201cdoesn\u2019t do the work of actually restoring justice, especially to his victims,\u201d Desiree Garcia said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLatino historians have really held up Chavez as a kind of supreme figure in our history,\u201d Matthew Garcia said. \u201cWe need to acknowledge that history in Latino studies is more than Cesar Chavez.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Garcia said he hopes the nation-wide name changes will \u201callow other organizations that are doing good work\u201d to step out from the \u201cshadow of the UFW.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHeroes are dangerous because we fetishize that person and we make them godlike,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they fail, we feel let down and we feel lost.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dartmouth Association of Latino Alumni president Unai Montes-Irueste \u201998 said he wants the fellowship to \u201cfocus back in on the work of the movement and the work of the scholars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOther fellowships in other departments don\u2019t bear historical names,\u201d Montes-Irueste said. \u201cInstead of having a fellowship in an academic department named after a historical figure, we should have it be called the fellowship for the department.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 29, the DALA board voted unanimously in support of renaming the fellowship.<\/p>\n

The LALACS website<\/a> now lists a \u201cPre-to-Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies,\u201d rather than a fellowship named after Chavez. The Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies website<\/a> still lists a \u201cCesar Chavez Predoctoral Fellowship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cesar Chavez Pre-to-Postdoctoral Fellowship is not itself being renamed, according to College spokesperson Jana Barnello.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA new Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellowship in Latino Studies has been created, and a new fellow will be named in the coming weeks,\u201d Barnello said. \u201cThe Provost\u2019s Fellowship Program will not fill the Cesar Chavez Predoctoral Fellowship position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montes-Irueste questioned why the administration has \u201cevaded\u201d requests from alumni organizations \u2014 such as Women of Dartmouth Representatives for the Dartmouth\u2019s Alumni Council \u2014 to rename other campus institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can\u2019t just be accountability about Chavez,\u201d Montes-Irueste said. \u201cIt has to be accountability about the bigger issue here, which is sexual violence, sexual harassment and sexual coercion. I hope we will see action from the administration on renaming the building<\/a> that bears Leon Black\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Black wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that the Dechert law firm concluded that Black \u201cpaid Epstein for estate planning and tax advice and that he had no awareness of Epstein\u2019s criminal activities.\u201d Dechert investigated Black in an investigation on behalf of the board of Apollo Global Management, an asset management firm co-founded by Black.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is absolutely no truth to any of the allegations against Mr. Black,\u201d the spokesperson wrote.<\/p>\n

The College declined to comment on renaming of the Black Visual Arts Center. Dartmouth has no current financial relationship<\/a> with Black.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Latin American, Latino and Caribbean studies professor Matthew Garcia provided the New York Times with the tip about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-184287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}