EU Renames César Chávez Lecture Following Sexual Abuse Allegations

Dr. Mladen Turk speaks before the Staudt Intercultural Lecture, one of the four lectures of which the Chávez lecture is a part, on March 11. (Gerardo Trujillo)

Elmhurst University is renaming the César Chávez Intercultural Lecture after The New York Times published an investigative report finding extensive evidence that the United Farm Workers co-founder groomed and sexually abused girls.

Established in 1996, the lecture coincides with Hispanic Heritage Month and is part of the university’s Hispanic Heritage Celebration. In light of the allegations of abuse, the university removed the Chávez name across campus documents and announcements.

The lecture has temporarily been renamed the “Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture,” and it will continue to feature speakers each September to honor Hispanic Heritage Month.

“As always, the lecture is designed to honor the resilience of the Hispanic community despite past and ongoing discrimination, as well as to honor the community’s numerous accomplishments and valuable contributions to American society,” Honors Program Director Mary Kay Mulvaney said in a statement to The Leader.

A permanent name will follow conversations between the university administration, faculty from the Latino Studies program, students from the Latino Student Association, Executive Director for Inclusion and Belonging Alexander Blumenberg, and the Honors Program Committee.

Associate Professor from the department of sociology and criminal justice Emily Navarro believes this could provide a chance to evaluate the tendency of social movements to be centered around historic figures.   

“I think that there’s this need to stop valorizing people as these perfect faces of movements,” said Navarro. 

Intersectionality is a framework that leads many social movements and can help explain how complex identities overlap, according to Navarro. For example, when thinking of the farm worker movement, farm workers in a neutral sense are typically thought of as male, but should also consciously be thought of as women too, among other varying identities.

While contextualizing the lecture in light of the allegations is essential to Navarro, this doesn’t mean ignoring Chávez as a part of history.

“The erasure of history of what happens is not helpful,” said Navarro. “We should still talk about him. We can still talk about a very flawed legacy that he left.”

Navarro has many friends who are labor organizers who have organized agricultural and farm work events to carry on the movement’s legacy. She recounted how devastating the news was, especially to a group that viewed Chávez so highly.

“I think it’s incredibly heartbreaking,” said Navarro.

Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez gave the 2025 César Chávez Intercultural Lecture and is an assistant professor of history at the University of Illinois Chicago. She believes it is important to continue talking about difficult histories while maintaining accountability. 

“I don’t tend to focus in my classes on the big names or icons of history,” said Padillia-Rodríguez. “I tend to focus more on the most marginalized historical subjects who are rarely highlighted in popular memory or national discourse.”

The lecture is one of the four annual events coordinated by the Honors Program staff. Each lecture is named after a historic figure.

“I wonder if this is going to make us kind of have conversations about all of the individually named series and again, how helpful that is, but I think starting here is the beginning,” said Navarro.

“I’d love to see a series of conversations or panels that help us as a community to grapple with all of these ideas,” added Navarro. “I think that’s probably the best way to move forward is to really face it.”