In the wake of sex abuse allegations against late farmworker leader César Chávez, the Santa Ana City Council took steps to erase his name and image from public parks.
Most notably, Cesar Chavez Campesino Park in the city’s Santa Anita neighborhood will revert to its original Campesino Park name for the first time in 25 years.
“We forget sometimes that the farmworkers movement was not about César Chávez, it was about the farmworkers,” said Santa Ana Mayor Valeria Amezcua. “I would hope that I would have the support to make these changes in our city because we must acknowledge the victims — the children, the women.”
On Tuesday, the council also directed City Manager Alvaro Nuñez to scrub Chávez from a mural at Jerome Park and greenlit his erasure at La Artista Artesia Pilar Park.
Nuñez will also meet with city employee unions to rename the observance of César Chávez Day as Farmworkers Day or replace it with a floating holiday in amended labor contracts.
According to a staff report, Santa Ana is setting aside its formal process for renaming the city park, which would have otherwise included a review by the Planning Commission.
The city does not expect any significant risk from expediting the process and argued “there may be greater potential harm” in leaving the name up, even temporarily.
An investigation published last month in the New York Times detailed allegations that Chávez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union, sexually assaulted girls as young as 12 and raped fellow farmworker leader Dolores Huerta.
A new allegation has since surfaced in La Opinion and L.A. Taco that an elder Chávez fondled and forcibly kissed a teenage activist in 1990.
A Cesar Chavez Campesino park sign is covered in black after recent sex abuse allegations.
(James Carbone/James Carbone)
After the New York Times report was published, Councilmember Jessie Lopez also called for a process to strip the labor leader’s name and image from city-owned property, but wanted it to be community-led.
It’s a preference she reiterated at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“If the community wants it to be Campesino Park, let it be that,” she said. “If there are other things that they want to bring forward, I’m also open to that. I think it’s important that we include as many people in our community as we can as part of this process.”
Santa Ana Unified School District has already forged ahead with renaming César E. Chávez High School and will solicit input from parents, students and community members on finding a new name.
For Cesar Chavez Campesino Park, city officials have an old name to revert to.
Chávez’s name was added to Campesino Park in 2001, the first year California officially observed César Chávez Day on March 31, his birthday. Since the allegations, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that changed the state holiday to “Farmworkers Day.”
Councilmember Thai Viet Phan understood Lopez’s desire to solicit community input, but favored a more expedited path to revert the park back to its original name.
“Whatever we have that needs to be cleaned up, let’s get it cleaned up,” she said. “Campesino Park was always Campesino Park. Let’s return it to that. I don’t think we have to make this a big, complicated process that’s going to take six months. We are capable of moving forward quickly.”
Councilmember David Peñaloza agreed.
But he also asserted the city should take a proactive role in alerting private property owners of the Chávez purge to encourage them to do the same with the disgraced labor leader’s name and likeness.
“Obviously, we can’t demand anyone do anything with their private property,” Peñaloza said, “but we can make them aware of the changes we’re making on city property.”
Peñaloza also suggested the council send a letter to state legislators in support of moving Farmworkers Day away from Chávez’s birthday.
The overall push to erase Chávez from public spaces in Santa Ana, which the council unanimously backed, is expected to cost the city about $15,000.