Berkeley leaders move to rename Cesar Chavez Park

Berkeley named its 90-acre waterfront park after Cesar Chavez in 1996. Credit: Phil Rowntree

Berkeley could take a first step next month toward removing Cesar Chavez’s name from the city park and holiday that honor him, in the wake of a report last week that the revered labor leader sexually assaulted women and girls.

Mayor Adena Ishii said Tuesday that she plans to introduce an item at the City Council’s April 14 meeting directing Berkeley staff and the Parks Commission to develop a plan to rename all city events, locations and holidays that are named for Chavez. Ishii’s proposal asks that staff and the commission return to the council with recommendations for new names “that will continue to honor the legacy of labor organizing and solidarity for farm workers, and recognize farm workers as the backbone of America.”

UC Berkeley, which named a student center at the heart of campus after Chavez, has launched a similar process. Chancellor Richard Lyons wrote in a message to the campus Thursday that Cal “will be initiating a formal review of the Cesar Chavez Student Center name” and is considering proposals for renaming the center.

Officials in Berkeley and across California, where Chavez was an iconic figure for his campaigns to improve pay and working conditions for farm workers, have faced a reckoning since The New York Times reported allegations that he sexually abused girls as young as 12, and raped United Farm Workers Association co-founder Dolores Huerta. Calls began immediately to remove monuments honoring Chavez and strip his name from countless public facilities throughout the state.

The solar calendar installation at César Chávez Park in Berkeley is a “tribute site” to the activist. Photo: Chris Benton

Berkeley named its 90-acre waterfront park after Chavez in 1996, and has commemorated Cesar Chavez Day since 2000. The park contains a memorial installation honoring Chavez, as well as a perimeter path that bears his name. The city has also observed a “Cesar Chavez-Dolores Huerta Commemorative Period,” which runs from the spring equinox through Huerta’s birthday on April 10.

The day after the Times article was published, state lawmakers announced they plan to change California’s Cesar Chavez holiday, held on his birthday, March 31, to “Farmworkers Day.”

Ishii’s proposal, which is co-sponsored by council members Cecilia Lunaparra, Mark Humbert and Shoshana O’Keefe, asks the city to work with local community organizations in the renaming process.

“I look forward to beginning a new chapter that reflects our community’s values and continues to bring pride and joy to all,” Ishii wrote in a statement Tuesday.

Melissa Male, a spokesperson for Ishii, said there was not an estimate for how long the process to rename the facilities and holiday might take.

The leadership of the memorial inside Cesar Chavez Park, a solar calendar known as a “tribute site,” wrote in a statement Saturday that they are “appalled” by the allegations and unsure of how they will move forward with the project.

“We do know that we have focused our efforts on the specific virtues of the United Farm Workers movement: hope, determination, courage, and tolerance/non-violence,” wrote project founder Santiago Casal, education director Beatriz Leyva-Cutler and Lupe Gallegos-Diaz, co-chair of the community organizing group Latinos Unidos Berkeley. “We expect to continue to honor those virtues along with honoring Dolores Huerta.”

Berkeley leaders move to rename Cesar Chavez Park

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