{"id":225817,"date":"2026-03-18T20:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225817\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T20:58:16","slug":"cesar-chavez-day-no-more-state-officials-support-renaming-the-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225817\/","title":{"rendered":"Cesar Chavez Day no more? State officials support renaming the holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

State officials who represent San Francisco said they would like to see California\u2019s Cesar Chavez Day renamed in light of sexual abuse allegations made against the late labor leader<\/a>. <\/p>\n

An investigation (opens in new tab)<\/a> published Wednesday in The New York Times caused upheaval as political and labor leaders grappled with the accusations, including Dolores Huerta\u2019s claim that Chavez raped her in 1966. Two women said they were molested or raped as children by Chavez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time to rename this holiday,\u201d said Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, a former District 2 supervisor who represents San Francisco\u2019s western half in the state Legislature. Stefani, who has made public safety for women a legislative priority and has spoken publicly about her stepfather\u2019s abuse of her mother<\/a>, said survivors \u201cdeserve to be heard, believed, and supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir stories matter, no matter how much time has passed and no matter who the allegations involve,\u201d she said. \u201cThis moment is not about rewriting history. It is about telling the full truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of Stefani\u2019s colleagues joined her in calling for a change to the March 31 holiday. Cesar Chavez Day was created in 2000 through legislation authored by former state Sen. Richard Polanco and signed into law by former Gov. Gray Davis. <\/p>\n

A change of the holiday\u2019s name would require state legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s a lot of heartbreak and pain across the state to this news, including among legislators, and concern for the victims,\u201d said Assemblymember Matt Haney, whose district includes San Francisco\u2019s eastern half. \u201cI would support renaming March 31 as Dolores Huerta Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ASupervisor Jackie Fielder, whose district includes the Mission, which is predominantly Latino, says she would strike Chavez\u2019s name from institutions. | Source: Manuel Orbegozo for The Standard<\/p>\n

State Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, said he would like to gauge the Latino community\u2019s opinion on changing the name of the holiday but supports renaming it after Huerta. <\/p>\n

At a press conference Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he too is open to changing the holiday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we need to move, we\u2019ll do so together,\u201d said Newsom. \u201cWe\u2019ll talk to the caucuses. There are already conversations at the staff level, and you can imagine [in] Sacramento, those are robust right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In San Francisco, others are calling for Chavez\u2019s name to be stricken from city sites.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who represents the Mission, which is predominantly Latino, said she supports removing Chavez\u2019s name from \u201cany District 9 institutions.\u201d Cesar Chavez Elementary School on Shotwell Street is within Fielder\u2019s district.<\/p>\n

The district also includes Cesar Chavez Street, which runs from Diamond Heights in the west to Pier 80 in the east. Its name was changed from Army Street in 1995 in honor of the labor leader.<\/p>\n

Fielder\u2019s office confirmed that her call for removing Chavez\u2019s name would include renaming the street. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State officials who represent San Francisco said they would like to see California\u2019s Cesar Chavez Day renamed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4684,16847,31349,2399,101,103,102,1621,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-225817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-catherine-stefani","tag-cesar-chavez","tag-matt-haney","tag-mission-district","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-scott-wiener","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225817","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=225817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}