{"id":225665,"date":"2026-03-18T19:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225665\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T19:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:08:09","slug":"sacramento-council-members-back-renaming-cesar-chavez-plaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225665\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento council members back renaming Cesar Chavez Plaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SAC_RCB_20210218_HOMELESSBIZ0409.JPG\"   width=\"1140\" height=\"641\" title=\"A homeless man sleeps while others push carts near the  A.J. Stevens statue in Cesar E. Chavez Plaza in downtown Sacramento in 2021.\" alt=\"A homeless man sleeps while others push carts near the  A.J. Stevens statue in Cesar E. Chavez Plaza in downtown Sacramento in 2021.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        A homeless man sleeps while others push carts near the  A.J. Stevens statue in Cesar E. Chavez Plaza in downtown Sacramento in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>                Ren\u00e9e C. Byer<\/p>\n<p>            rbyer@sacbee.com<\/p>\n<p>Two Sacramento council members announced support for renaming Cesar E. Chavez Plaza after allegations of sexual abuse were published Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Chavez was accused of sexually abusing children and raping Dolores Huerta, another civil rights icon, in a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/18\/us\/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html\">New York Times report<\/a>. Sacramento has long been associated with civil rights and labor leader Cesar Chavez, who visited the state Capitol frequently.<\/p>\n<p>Just across from City Hall, the plaza stands as a city gathering spot for summer concerts and protests. It is also a microcosm of the capital city\u2019s struggles with homelessness.<\/p>\n<p>Council members Caity Maple and Eric Guerra issued separate statements that supported renaming the plaza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo prevent further harm, I support renaming Cesar Chavez Plaza, and the city should work with impacted communities to get it right,\u201d Maple wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Both Maple and Guerra added that the legacy of the United Farm Workers union\u2019s fight for labor rights should endure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must also separate the individual from the movement,\u201d Maple wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Serna Jr., Sacramento\u2019s first Latino mayor, pushed in 1997 to rename the plaza in Chavez\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n<p>This story will be updated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"summary gray\">This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 11:02 AM.<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/279278099\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ISHANI-DESAI-HEADSHOT.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Ishani Desai\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/279278099\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ishani Desai<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Ishani Desai is a government watchdog reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered crime and courts for The Bakersfield Californian.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A homeless man sleeps while others push carts near the A.J. Stevens statue in Cesar E. Chavez Plaza&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[88902,77010,16848,21872,121,123,122,102808],"class_list":["post-225665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-caity-maple","tag-cesar-chavez-plaza","tag-dolores-huerta","tag-eric-guerra","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-plaza-renaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}