Fail Cesar

Most leaders work in small circles, but leadership can take you to heights unimaginable and make you a legend carved in stone.  Monuments might last in perpetuity, but in an age when nothing is sacred, skeletons in your closet can cause damage beyond repair and if you’re no longer around to defend yourself, even the hardest granite is no match for the sledgehammer of erasure.  Leadership is knowing that you are on display on and off the job, and incongruent personal and professional lives will ultimately result in downfall.  

Cesar Chavez started as a simple laborer in the workforce, anonymously working and getting by.  As he became involved in community service and organization, he saw the need and plight of farm workers in California, most of whom were of Mexican and Central American descent.  Wanting to improve their lives, he joined and led a labor movement and began organizing strikes and actions to limited success. 

Allying himself and his movement with others, they formed the United Farm Workers and continued organizing and leading strikes and other labor actions.  With a growing national presence, he helped gain the passage of farm worker labor protection laws in California, but as his fame increased, he seemed more interested in the spotlight than the cause, and he alienated many of his supporters. 

Chavez continued as a celebrity in the labor and leftist political movements and remained so long after his death.  Canonized by those who used more than appreciated him and his cause, his name was prominently placed on streets and schools, statues rose in his honor, and his birthday became a holiday in California, Texas, Arizona, and other states.  Children were taught that he was a hero of the common man, the forgotten farm worker, and people of Mexican descent, to the point of a becoming a personality cult that he did nothing to dissuade in his lifetime, and politicians used it to their advantage for many years.  

Yet even before his death, there were cracks in the granite.  He railed against illegal immigration, and he maintained absolute control of the union, dispensing with any opponents real or perceived.  Fame and power also led him to believe that he was able to do as he pleased, and that included sexual improprieties with minors and even a high-ranking colleague.  Given the mores of the times, and a desire to uphold their cause, these women remained silent for many years, but recent investigations by the New York Times revealed the truth, and when that truth became inconvenient, the race to erase moved at warp speed.  

Almost overnight, Chavez became the embodiment of George Orwell’s unperson, with his name removed from the public arena, statues slated to be taken down, and the holiday renamed for the farm workers.  Women who remained silent years ago came forward to accuse.  Politicians were tripping over themselves and each other to say how yesterday’s saint was today’s devil, with some claiming they were never really allies or admirers.  

Just as the glare of the spotlight can be enlightening, it can also blind judgment and reason.  Once the light is on, it doesn’t go off easily, and many times, not at all.  In the 21st century, the light sees all and tells all, so leaders who step into it must understand that they surrender a part of themselves to it. 

It also means that there is no difference between your public and private lives.  Being a paragon of virtue and empathetic leadership on the job means nothing if you are a self-interested scofflaw with no regard for others when you perceive yourself to be off the clock.  For true leadership, there is no such thing as after hours, for you can have a personal life, but know that it must be in line with your public persona, and in an age when there is no shortage of media and trolls who live to discredit others, even the slightest indiscretion is magnified in the public eye. 

Cesar Chavez will now be reduced to a footnote in history, someone who was a great leader of a movement, but abusive of those who supported him.  The movement itself will likely suffer and become a hollow memory of what it once was.  Leaders who build an image for themselves and their cause can carve them in the hardest stone, but it is their character that not only gives it resilience, but also lasting brilliance.     

Sincerely,

Tim