An outpouring of support flooded reproductive rights and immigration activist Nancy Cárdenas Peña’s Facebook page following a lengthy post detailing the emotional, sexual, and verbal abuse she says she received from Alejandro Caceres of Grassroots Leadership – enough to land her in the hospital on suicide watch.
While Grassroots has terminated Caceres and issued its own statement of support for Peña, a staffer with the Texas Latina Advocacy Network, the organization still has damage to repair among its progressive allies.
In her Saturday, Dec. 1 post, Peña writes that Caceres berated her; asked her to complete much of his assigned work from Grassroots; took advantage of her sexually when they were engaged in an intimate relationship; and used his position to manipulate female co-workers. “I doubted who I was as a person. I doubted my skills, my work, my reason for being. This abuse almost killed me several times,” said Peña in a follow-up post on Dec. 3. “[Grassroots Leadership] failed survivors of abuse.”
Peña says her 13-page complaint to Grassroots prompted the investigation that led to Caceres’ dismissal, but that Grassroots’ failure to say why he was fired allowed Caceres to “control the narrative,” and that a “multitude of complaints” were brought to Executive Director Bob Libal and “nothing” was done. Political organizer Ainee Athar also chimed in that she had ended her work with Grassroots due to the “unsatisfactory way” they handled the situation.
“According to women who worked with him over the years, [Caceres] regularly harmed the work over petty squabbles, threw fits when things didn’t go his way, relied on intimidation to silence dissent, or dumped his responsibilities on others,” wrote Athar. Peña’s post also touched a nerve among progressive women leaders such as ACC Trustee Julie Ann Nitsch, Heather Busby, and Travis County Democratic Party Chair Dyana Limon-Mercado. As Nitsch wrote, “Men that claim to be allies, and expect us to be abused for the sake of the [organizations], we see you.”
The public pressure led Grassroots Leadership to release a statement on Tuesday, Dec. 4, signed by Libal and board chairs. “[We] believe women who come forward to tell their stories, and we believe Nancy Cardenas Peña. … We cannot tolerate an organization or movement that allows those inside of it to be harmed while doing the work.”
Statement from Grassroots Leadership’s Board of Directors and Executive Director. pic.twitter.com/TFlRV2TZ8X
— GrassrootsLeadership (@Grassroots_News) December 4, 2018
Grassroots states it has retained an “organizational change consultant” to improve its policies and culture and to help respond to those who may have been hurt by Caceres’ actions. “This is not an overnight process for us and we know we must do much better in the future,” the group writes. “We thank women for coming forward and challenging us to address these issues.”
This article appears in November 30 • 2018.