By Nadia Lathan and Nigel Duara, CalMatters
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As Californians reel from César Chávez’s sex abuse allegations, city leaders across the state say they are considering removing his iconography by changing street names, libraries and monuments.
From San Francisco to San Diego, local officials have said they support removing statues and renaming everything from parks to libraries after renowned activist Dolores Huerta, 95, said Chávez forced himself on her in encounters that led to unwanted pregnancies.
But the process for renaming a street or monument is often slow, bureaucratic and costly, typically requiring a combination of internal investigations, community input and city council approval. Businesses, too, could face mounting costs from changing addresses listed on business cards and websites.
In a stunning turn of events for a man whose influence has been a mainstay in Democratic politics for decades, state lawmakers on Thursday announced that they would change the holiday in honor of Chávez’s birthday to Farmworkers Day. The move comes more than 25 years after California became the first state to establish March 31 as a day commemorating his legacy.
“California’s farmworker rights movement never has been about one individual,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate Leader Monique Limón said Thursday in a joint statement, and that the Legislature will work with cities and school districts to address the change.
Cities consider undoing a legacy
On Wednesday, the day the New York Times published a deeply reported investigation into numerous allegations of sexual assault and abuse against Chávez, San Diego officials said they are reviewing potentially renaming Cesar Chávez Parkway, a major thoroughfare in the city’s downtown. They are also reviewing nearly a dozen parks and public buildings named after Chávez.
Just outside the state Capitol in Sacramento, a monument and plaza named for Chávez will be renamed, City Councilmember Eric Guerra told CalMatters.
“The unifying thing I’ve heard all day, because every Latino group has been reaching out to me about this, both to vent and to console, is that we have an obligation to continue this work,” Guerra said.
In Fresno, a city councilmember who in 2024 advocated for a Cesar Chávez boulevard called to restore the original street names.
San Francisco Supervisor Jackie Fielder said she supports removing his name from institutions in the city’s predominantly Latino Mission District.
Meanwhile, members on the California Museum Board of Trustees said Wednesday that they’re planning to remove Chávez from the California Hall of Fame, the first time an honoree has been removed in in recent history.
“Our hearts go out to the survivors of abusive behavior from this man, whom so many regarded as a hero. We also still wish to recognize the significant progress that the union achieved under his leadership,” the board said in a statement.
The National Park Service didn’t return a request for comment about whether they were talking about renaming the César Chávez National Monument near Bakersfield.
Activists in Los Angeles continued to urge officials to rename the city’s numerous streets dedicated to Chávez to instead honor Huerta, his partner in the labor movement.
“We know in the Latino community, a lot of this abuse has been tolerated for generations and our culture was told to stay quiet,” Raul Claros, a Los Angeles community organizer, said at a press conference.
Renaming costs time and money
The process to change a street name can move at a glacial pace, even under special circumstances.
In San Diego, changing the city’s road names could be done with a petition with unanimous support from affected property owners and businesses that can be submitted to the city for approval. This option could take months to years, and is unlikely to happen because it would require buy-in from owners who would be volunteering to take on the disruption of renaming their home or business address.
Another option is for the city council to vote on changing a street name. This would take place after the city has completed its own report on all the affected areas, according to San Diego logistics officer Bethany Bezak. The mayor and his staff would then coordinate with the city council to bring it up for approval.
City officials could not say how long this process would take.
A review of every road, park and building in Cesar Chávez’s name is in the works and could take weeks to complete, Bezak said.
Changing park and monument names would also require approval from the city’s 11-member parks and recreation board, which is appointed by the mayor.
“It’s unfortunate when this happens, but there is some precedent,” of removing street signs of outdated or offensive words about groups of people, Bezak said, and that they don’t know yet what the total cost of removing and installing new sign posts would be, but it would depend on the number of intersections with Chávez’s name.
“These are very concerning allegations,” Bezek said. “Ultimately we want to ensure that the neighborhoods reflect our values.”
In Los Angeles, where activists have called for scrubbing Chávez’s name from numerous avenues, residents can also submit an application or the city council can take action, typically in tandem with an investigation.
The process can be long and cumbersome, mostly because it would require all addresses for every property on the road to be changed, something that many businesses have previously objected to because of the costs associated with it, engineering and public works department spokesperson Mary Nemick said.
