California will rename Cesar Chavez Day following bombshell sexual abuse allegations against the labor and civil rights leader, leaders of the state Legislature announced Thursday.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate Pro Tempore Monique Limón said they’ve agreed to legislation to rename the holiday Farmworker Day. The holiday is March 31, which is Chavez’s birthday.
“I’m shocked. I am angry and I’m deeply, deeply disappointed,” Rivas said on the Assembly floor Thursday morning, referring to the New York Times investigation that chronicled years of alleged sexual assault. “The fact that many of these women were children when they were abused makes this even more heartbreaking. But today … above all, we recognize their courage because speaking the truth, especially after so many years, that takes extraordinary strength.”
Rivas, who represents an agriculture-rich district in San Benito County, touts on his state biography that his grandfather worked alongside Chavez in the push to win a fair labor contract for farmworkers.
The deal by the Legislature is one of many frantic pushes to strip Chavez’s name from buildings, streets and landmarks in the wake of the report. But the quickly approaching holiday created a built-in urgency.
San Francisco’s Cesar Chavez Day Parade has been renamed to the Dolores Huerta Parade and Festival, and will be held on April 11, organizers told the Chronicle. Huerta, 95, worked closely with Chavez and co-founded the United Farm Workers. She said she kept her own sexual abuse private to avoid damanging the movement she helped build.
In a joint statement, Rivas and Limón said the newly named holiday will be a time for Californians to “honor the past, reflect on the present and renew our collective dedication to equity and justice for farmworkers.”
Assembly Member Alexandra M. Macedo, R-Tulare, first introduced legislation to rename the state holiday on Wednesday.
“Farmworkers are essential to our everyday lives — from the food we eat to the economy we enjoy,” Macedo said in a statement. “The fight for dignity in the fields was never about one person — it is about the millions of workers who sweat, toil and aspire for a better life.”
Chavez, who died in 1993, started his activist career in San Jose, has a plaque in the city marking the site of his former home, as well as an elementary school and public park named after him. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said Wednesday the city has canceled events scheduled around the state holiday at the end of the month celebrating Chavez.
State leaders said they also will also work with local governments and school districts to incorporate the new holiday name.