{"id":7247,"date":"2026-03-19T20:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/7247\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T20:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:50:07","slug":"california-lawmakers-want-to-rename-cesar-chavez-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/7247\/","title":{"rendered":"California lawmakers want to rename C\u00e9sar Chavez Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he supports a proposal to rename C\u00e9sar Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day<\/a> following stunning allegations of abuse<\/a> against the revered labor leader. <\/p>\n

Political leaders in states and cities are considering similar moves<\/a> after the allegations became public, accusing Chavez of sexually abusing girls and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America union, Dolores Huerta<\/a>, decades ago.<\/p>\n

There also have been calls to alter memorials honoring the man<\/a> who in the 1960s helped secure better wages and working conditions for farmworkers and had been admired by many Democratic leaders<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson\u2019s office said Thursday that he won\u2019t issue a proclamation honoring C\u00e9sar Chavez Day this year while Denver officials plan to rename their annual celebration. Events in Texas and in his home state of Arizona have been canceled at the request of the C\u00e9sar Chavez Foundation.<\/p>\n

In 2000, California became the first state to designate Chavez\u2019s birthday as a holiday. Schools were required to teach students about his involvement in the labor movement in California. Chavez died in California in 1993 at age 66.<\/p>\n

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President pro Tempore Monique Lim\u00f3n, the leaders of the California Legislature, said Thursday they would pass a bill renaming the holiday before the end of the month. The legislation would need Newsom\u2019s approval. <\/p>\n

Advocates grapple with Chavez\u2019s legacy<\/p>\n

Latino leaders and community groups quickly condemned the alleged abuse by Chavez but emphasized that the farmworker movement was never about one person.<\/p>\n

Mary Rose Wilcox and her husband marched alongside Chavez, helped him open a radio station in Phoenix and plastered their Mexican restaurant with his photos and a mural.<\/p>\n

By Wednesday morning, they had taken down Chavez\u2019s photos and were making plans to cover the mural.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love C\u00e9sar Chavez. But we cannot honor him and we cannot even love him anymore,\u201d said the former Phoenix City Council member.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Advocates work to reconcile C\u00e9sar Chavez\u2019s labor rights legacy with sexual abuse allegations\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports on allegations against a civil rights icon.<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Chavez National Monument in central California, where the labor leader is buried, were also contemplating how he should be remembered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you want to erase everything he did,\u201d Nell O\u2019Malley, from Corvallis, Oregon, said Thursday. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think you want to honor him the same way knowing what we know now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores Huerta stamped her own legacy on the fight for justice <\/p>\n

Huerta, who is a labor rights legend in her own right, said in a statement Wednesday that she stayed silent for 60 years for fear her words could hurt the farmworker movement. She said she did not know Chavez had hurt other women.<\/p>\n

Huerta described two sexual encounters with Chavez; one in which she was \u201cmanipulated and pressured\u201d and another when she was \u201cforced against my will.\u201d She said both led to pregnancies, which she kept secret, and that she arranged for the children to be raised by other families.<\/p>\n

The New York Times first reported Wednesday that it found Chavez groomed and sexually abused young girls working in the movement. Huerta, too, revealed to the newspaper that she was a victim of abuse in her 30s.<\/p>\n

She joined Chavez in 1962 to co-found the National Farm Workers Association, which became the United Farm Workers of America. <\/p>\n

Huerta\u2019s resolve and dedication to women\u2019s rights and social justice won wide admiration. Some, including a group of Democrats in Texas, are calling for Huerta\u2019s name to replace Chavez\u2019s on places that bear his name.<\/p>\n

Some knew about Chavez\u2019s abusive behavior, biographer says<\/p>\n

Chavez is known nationally for his early organizing in the fields,<\/a> a hunger strike, a grape boycott and eventual victory in getting growers to negotiate with farmworkers for better wages and working conditions.<\/p>\n

His place in history grew after his death. Schools, streets and parks pay tribute to him not only in the Southwest and California but also in places far away where he remained an inspiration.<\/p>\n

In Milwaukee, there\u2019s a statue of Chavez near a street bearing his name while a colorful mural of his likeness adorns a building in a Toledo, Ohio. <\/p>\n

In 2014, President Barack Obama proclaimed March 31 C\u00e9sar Chavez Day. President Joe Biden had a bronze bust of Chavez<\/a> installed in the Oval Office when he moved into the White House. <\/p>\n

But Chavez was full of contradictions even as a union leader, said Miriam Pawel, a California journalist who wrote a biography of him. There was abusive behaviors within the union, but people didn\u2019t speak out because they believed the union was the best way to protect farmworkers, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many, many years, for most of those people, even when they saw things that they found disturbing, they did not wanna talk about it,\u201d Pawel said.<\/p>\n

Chavez\u2019s family and foundation voice support for the victims<\/p>\n

Born in Yuma, Arizona, Chavez grew up in a Mexican American family that traveled around California picking produce. <\/p>\n

His family said in a statement that they are devastated by the allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward. As a family steeped in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse,\u201d the family said.<\/p>\n

The C\u00e9sar Chavez Foundation pledged support for the labor leader\u2019s victims, saying \u2014 with the Chavez family\u2019s support \u2014 the organization will figure out its identity going forward.<\/p>\n

The United Farm Workers union quickly distanced itself from annual celebrations of its founder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Its president, Teresa Romero, said Thursday that the many people who have dedicated years to fighting for workers\u2019 rights should know their work is recognized.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have in one hand C\u00e9sar Chavez, the man who committed horrible acts that we\u2019re not going to justify, that we don\u2019t condone,\u201d she told The Associated Press. \u201cOn the other hand, we have C\u00e9sar Chavez, the organizer who brought thousands and thousands of people together to be able to work for farm workers, and improve their lives and working conditions.\u201d <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to show Wilcox and her husband did not participate in a hunger strike with Chavez but did march with him.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Daley reported from Keene, California, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix; Fernanda Figueroa in Austin, Texas; Hallie Golden in Seattle; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he supports a proposal to rename C\u00e9sar Chavez Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[51,52,105,5792,112,55,5605,73,50,8,478,218,1796,5796,5793,5797,5408,9,5410,67,164,1060,969,5794,1281,1282,5795,7,54],"class_list":{"0":"post-7247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-az-state-wire","10":"tag-barack-obama","11":"tag-bob-ferguson","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-dolores-huerta","15":"tag-gavin-newsom","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-joe-biden","19":"tag-latin-america","20":"tag-legislation","21":"tag-mary-rose-wilcox","22":"tag-miriam-pawel","23":"tag-nell-omalley","24":"tag-new-mexico","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-nm-state-wire","27":"tag-politics","28":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","29":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","30":"tag-religion","31":"tag-robert-rivas","32":"tag-sexual-abuse","33":"tag-sexual-assault","34":"tag-teresa-romero","35":"tag-top-stories","36":"tag-u-s-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116257818072564532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}