Looks like Joe Biden was too worried about shamelessly pandering to Hispanic voters to consider the implications of his César Chávez Day tribute

In 2014, President Barack Obama proclaimed that March 31 is César Chávez Day.

Today, March 31, 2022, President Joe Biden is doing his part to honor the celebrated Hispanic labor activist, with a tweet featuring a photo of the César Chávez he keeps in the Oval Office:

When I became President, I proudly placed a bust of César Chávez in the Oval Office — a constant reminder of the enduring values he embodied, the vision of freedom he fought for, and his commitment to social justice and equal dignity that we must uphold each and every day. pic.twitter.com/jI1KffGdGB

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 31, 2022

That’s a very lovely sentiment, Mr. President. Who doesn’t love freedom and social justice and equality and dignity?

As it turns out, César Chávez. At least in certain respects.

Comvenient how you left out the part where he also was against illegal immigration, unlike you. https://t.co/Uw8NCvCjgO

— Patrick (@ArgentineTea) March 31, 2022

That seems like a pretty big omission, Joe …

He opposed open borders. https://t.co/M15I0XNfe6

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 31, 2022

He supported strong border controls, and was against illegal immigration. In fact he was MORE for border controls than almost any Republican. https://t.co/kCRgwzIjx2

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) March 31, 2022

He wasn’t just against open borders in a run-of-the-mill anti-illegal-immigration sort of way … he was actually quite openly hostile toward illegal immigrants.

You do realize Chavez hated illegal immigrants right? https://t.co/QvKjr3cI18

— Mr X (@NeonMaxima) March 31, 2022

That changed in graduate school, when I read a 1992 memoir by Philip Vera Cruz. The Filipino immigrant was already a legendary labor organizer when he helped Chavez establish the UFW and stayed by his side until 1977, when he criticized Chavez for hanging out withthe Philippines’ president, Ferdinand Marcos, and quit.

Vera Cruz’s memoir decried the organization he helped to found as turning “very ethnocentric. When [UFW Mexican members] called out ‘Viva la Raza’ or ‘Viva César Chávez,’ they didn’t realize that all these ‘Vivas’ did not include the Filipinos,” he wrote. “As a matter of fact, they didn’t include anyone but themselves.”

I didn’t even know until reading Vera Cruz’s book that Filipinos helped to start the original grape strike that led to the UFW.

I learned more about Chavez’s faults as I progressed through my journalism career. How he once lashed out at Dolores Huerta — who had urged him to use more sympathetic language for immigrants in the country illegally than “wetbacks” — by saying, “You [Chicano liberals] get these hang-ups.… They’re wets, you know. They’re wets, and let’s go after them.” How he organized group exercises for UFW higher-ups that consisted of people taking turns screaming and intimidating others over their perceived faults.

Yikes. It sounds like if César Chávez were alive today, he’d have to disagree with Joe Biden’s characterization.

Besides his anti immigration stance,he hoped to replicate the shaming & beating methods of cults, praised dictators like Marcos, went on a Francoist inspired Catholic retreat & cashed in on his image at the end of his life (with franchised t shirts & mugs) https://t.co/gPIpKXlrHN

— Rodin (@RodinsRevenge) March 31, 2022

Not that Biden would care, of course. Democrats are getting further underwater with Hispanic voters and at this point, Biden’s pretty clearly desperate to reverse that trajectory.

Latino voters needed for mid-terms. https://t.co/yO1F7yVr0c

— theothernews (@realobjextivity) March 31, 2022

Boy, Biden is really pandering to every special interest group this morning. The polls must be really bad. https://t.co/jqXoVhWdTN

— 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘿𝘾 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝙋𝙃𝙀𝙏✪ – Twitifact Fact Check (@Potomacbeat) March 31, 2022