California lawmakers moved to overhaul how the state honors César Chávez, with Gov. Gavin Newsom backing a proposal to replace César Chavez Day with Farmworkers Day after allegations of sexual abuse against the labor leader.
In Sacramento, Newsom said he supports the rename plan, according to the Associated Press. The proposal comes as political leaders in other states and cities consider similar changes, with some accusing Chávez of sexually abusing girls and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, Dolores Huerta, of abuse decades earlier.
California’s legislative leadership said Thursday that Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón would pass a bill renaming the holiday before the end of the month. The legislation would still need Newsom’s approval, lawmakers said.
The changes are rippling beyond California. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office said Thursday it will not issue a proclamation honoring César Chavez Day this year. Denver officials, meanwhile, are planning to rename their annual celebration, while events in Texas and in Arizona were canceled at the request of the César Chavez Foundation.
The renewed scrutiny comes after California designated Chávez’s birthday as a holiday in 2000. At the time, the state became the first to observe the day as a state holiday, and schools were required to teach students about his role in the labor movement in California. Chávez died in California in 1993 at age 66.
Advocates and community members, AP reported, have been grappling with the movement’s legacy and how much of it should be tied to Chávez personally. Mary Rose Wilcox, who marched with Chávez alongside her husband and helped open a radio station in Phoenix, said she and her husband had taken down Chávez’s photos and planned to cover a mural honoring him. “We love César Chavez. But we cannot honor him and we cannot even love him anymore,” Wilcox said.
In central California, visitors to the Chavez National Monument also weighed how the public should remember him. Nell O’Malley of Corvallis, Oregon, said Thursday that she did not think people should “erase everything he did,” but also said they should not “honor him the same way” in light of what she said is now known.
Dolores Huerta, a leading figure in the farmworker movement, 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 and described two sexual encounters with Chávez: one in which she was “manipulated and pressured” and another when she was “forced against my will.” Huerta said both incidents led to pregnancies that she kept secret and that she arranged for the children to be raised by other families.
Huerta’s statement followed reporting by The New York Times that it found Chávez groomed and sexually abused young girls working in the movement, AP said. Huerta said she was also a victim of abuse in her 30s, and AP reported that she joined Chávez in 1962 to co-found the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers of America.
Other accounts and official voices added to the mixed picture of Chávez’s legacy. Miriam Pawel, a California journalist who wrote a biography of Chávez, said some people knew about Chavez’s abusive behavior but did not speak out because they believed the union was the best way to protect farmworkers.
The Chavez family and the César Chavez Foundation also issued statements, AP reported. The family said it was devastated by the allegations and wished peace and healing to survivors, commending what it called their courage to come forward. The César Chavez Foundation pledged support for victims, saying the organization, with support from the family, would “figure out its identity going forward,” while the United Farm Workers union distanced itself from annual celebrations of its founder.
The UFW president, Teresa Romero, told The Associated Press that the union holds two things at once: “We have in one hand César Chavez, the man who committed horrible acts that we’re not going to justify, that we don’t condone,” she said, adding that on the other hand, Chávez “brought thousands and thousands of people together” to improve working conditions for farmworkers.
AP also reported a correction to the story after publication, stating that Wilcox and her husband did not participate in a hunger strike with Chávez but did march with him.