{"id":226189,"date":"2026-03-19T01:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226189\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T01:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:19:13","slug":"california-lawmakers-push-to-strip-cesar-chavezs-name-from-state-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226189\/","title":{"rendered":"California lawmakers push to strip Cesar Chavez\u2019s name from state holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">SACRAMENTO, California \u2014 California Latino legislative leaders are pushing to strip Cesar Chavez\u2019s name from the official state holiday honoring his birthday following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/18\/us\/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the sexual abuse allegations leveled against him;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;the sexual abuse allegations leveled against him&quot;}\" class=\"link \">the sexual abuse allegations leveled against him<\/a>, the highest-profile in a rush of efforts to remove his name from parks, public buildings and commemorations across the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Latino Legislative Caucus chair Lena Gonzalez on Wednesday told reporters that lawmakers will pursue a name change, though she did not suggest an alternative or lay out a timeline, saying \u201cthere\u2019s going to be a short- and a long-term process.\u201d California annually celebrates Chavez, the United Farm Workers labor union co-founder and Latino civil rights organizer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It was unclear if a name change could be enacted in time for this year\u2019s March 31 holiday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Latino Caucus members huddled in the state Capitol following the publication of a New York Times report in which two women alleged Chavez sexually abused them as girls. Chavez\u2019s labor movement partner, Dolores Huerta, also accused him of twice raping her, resulting in two children she sent to be raised by other families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The caucus \u2014 which includes Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tem Monique Lim\u00f3n \u2014 will shift the focus of celebrations away from Chavez and toward the success of the farmworker movement instead, Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez told POLITICO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Rivas and Lim\u00f3n, who were both present for the caucus meeting, declined to comment after the gathering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe will be thinking about a process that&#8217;s mindful, that acknowledges the atrocities, keeps people accountable, but more importantly, makes sure that we&#8217;re honoring and uplifting farmworkers, labor, justice, immigrant rights,\u201d Lena Gonzalez said. \u201cThat is key to the values of our caucus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, California \u2014 California Latino legislative leaders are pushing to strip Cesar Chavez\u2019s name from the official state&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,16847,76900,13223,33714,102990,16573,121,102786,101284,38682],"class_list":["post-226189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-cesar-chavez","tag-lena-gonzalez","tag-mark-gonzalez","tag-name-change","tag-public-buildings","tag-robert-rivas","tag-sacramento","tag-sexual-abuse-allegations","tag-state-holiday","tag-united-farm-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226189","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=226189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}