Powerful statement and beautifully written! Something everyone should read, ponder, and process. Thank you for your invitation to explore our thoughts and feelings through your words Ava!!!🙏🏾
There are no perfect vessels. This is an excellent account of what happens when we pedestal the person instead of the mission and the movement. We must make space for grieving the harm and the victims.
Thank you for this. These revelations serve to confuse and stop present day movements. Instead they should energize and, as you have so eloquently stated, remind us that liberation belongs to all of us. The good, the bad and the ugly. Let us March on until victory is won.
It is so hard to reconcile the human being, the crime and the cause. This reminds us that people are never ONE thing, but many complex layers. We can recognize impactful contributions to beneficiaries and still condemn bad behaviors toward victims. They are not mutually exclusive. Great analysis, keeping it real, Ava.
I have been asking these questions in movement and artist spaces for at least 20 years. Thank you for using your platform to elevate these questions, and that there are no simple answers. Your heart and mind come through in this piece.
I don't think they are mutually exclusive ideals. I think statues are important reminders of those who actually sacrificed everything they had to a movement to advance the greater good. But it does not negate the need to remove them when we find that these folks were racists, or pedophiles or rapists.
City of San Fernando has already removed his statue. Names of streets/parks/schools are being covered or changed. Curious how when it's a Latino hero action is swift to take it all down; but most of those white slaver Confederate Civil War general's statues are still standing, and names are still on military bases, etc.
Certainly a complex issue, but I think the statement here that "the Movement is the hero" is crucial. Chavez's failings don't negate the courage, sacrifice, and accomplishments of what was achieved.
The comparative speed to remove the Chavez statue--at this particular moment--struck me as I read about memorialization of revered people with problematic histories being reinstalled across the nation. Ms. DuVernay points out the problem with conflating an individual with the movement.
There are no perfect vessels, it's the substances (the movement, liberation) they contain where the value lies. Vessels are flawed and they break. An imperfect analogy may be the Japanese art of kintsugi, which repairs broken pottery with gold lacquer, highlighting those flaws, calling attention to them, all in service to the vessel's intended purpose. The women, in their silence, chose the movement. Allowing their truth to be heard should reset the narrative, show they were holding the vessel together for its greater purpose.
Powerful statement and beautifully written! Something everyone should read, ponder, and process. Thank you for your invitation to explore our thoughts and feelings through your words Ava!!!🙏🏾
Agreed. So eloquently written and thought provoking.
Agreed. Beautifully stating what I felt. Thank you Ladies! Your piece so Rocks, Ava!
https://substack.com/profile/325496263-rebecca-r-bibbs/note/c-232014456?r=5dsiiv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
https://substack.com/profile/325496263-rebecca-r-bibbs/note/c-232014456?r=5dsiiv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Agreed 🙏💙
https://substack.com/profile/325496263-rebecca-r-bibbs/note/c-232014456?r=5dsiiv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
beautifully written - and absolutely agree that harm cannot be a footnote.
https://substack.com/profile/325496263-rebecca-r-bibbs/note/c-232014456?r=5dsiiv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
There are no perfect vessels. This is an excellent account of what happens when we pedestal the person instead of the mission and the movement. We must make space for grieving the harm and the victims.
Thank you for this. These revelations serve to confuse and stop present day movements. Instead they should energize and, as you have so eloquently stated, remind us that liberation belongs to all of us. The good, the bad and the ugly. Let us March on until victory is won.
https://substack.com/profile/325496263-rebecca-r-bibbs/note/c-232014456?r=5dsiiv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
It is so hard to reconcile the human being, the crime and the cause. This reminds us that people are never ONE thing, but many complex layers. We can recognize impactful contributions to beneficiaries and still condemn bad behaviors toward victims. They are not mutually exclusive. Great analysis, keeping it real, Ava.
https://substack.com/profile/325496263-rebecca-r-bibbs/note/c-232014456?r=5dsiiv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Brilliant! Nuanced! Liberating! Yet Absolutely Heart Breaking!!! 💔
https://substack.com/profile/325496263-rebecca-r-bibbs/note/c-232014456?r=5dsiiv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Thank you for saying the words that I can’t articulate!
https://substack.com/profile/325496263-rebecca-r-bibbs/note/c-232014456?r=5dsiiv&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I always appreciate your thoughtful discourses. Thank you, Ava.
Exquisite piece, Ava - thank you!
Every time a so-called “great” man turns out to be deeply flawed, I think about the Ella Baker quote:
“Strong people don’t need strong leaders.”
I have been asking these questions in movement and artist spaces for at least 20 years. Thank you for using your platform to elevate these questions, and that there are no simple answers. Your heart and mind come through in this piece.
Beautifully said. ….perhaps all the Chavez statues and memorials worldwide should be replaced by Huertas
How about no more statutes to a person, when a movement is more than one person.
Yes, replace with a statue that represents the Farm worker activists, the movement.
I don't think they are mutually exclusive ideals. I think statues are important reminders of those who actually sacrificed everything they had to a movement to advance the greater good. But it does not negate the need to remove them when we find that these folks were racists, or pedophiles or rapists.
City of San Fernando has already removed his statue. Names of streets/parks/schools are being covered or changed. Curious how when it's a Latino hero action is swift to take it all down; but most of those white slaver Confederate Civil War general's statues are still standing, and names are still on military bases, etc.
Certainly a complex issue, but I think the statement here that "the Movement is the hero" is crucial. Chavez's failings don't negate the courage, sacrifice, and accomplishments of what was achieved.
The comparative speed to remove the Chavez statue--at this particular moment--struck me as I read about memorialization of revered people with problematic histories being reinstalled across the nation. Ms. DuVernay points out the problem with conflating an individual with the movement.
There are no perfect vessels, it's the substances (the movement, liberation) they contain where the value lies. Vessels are flawed and they break. An imperfect analogy may be the Japanese art of kintsugi, which repairs broken pottery with gold lacquer, highlighting those flaws, calling attention to them, all in service to the vessel's intended purpose. The women, in their silence, chose the movement. Allowing their truth to be heard should reset the narrative, show they were holding the vessel together for its greater purpose.
Stunningly and beautifully written.
Grateful to you always. X
Was helpful to read this. Thank you!