{"id":226467,"date":"2026-03-19T05:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226467\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T05:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:15:16","slug":"sacramento-leader-seeks-to-rename-cesar-chavez-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226467\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento leader seeks to rename Cesar Chavez holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna proposed Wednesday that the county <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/local\/article315102181.html\">rename its Cesar Chavez<\/a> holiday after sexual abuse allegations were made against the California icon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSacramento County should not wait one second longer to ensure our official holidays represent people, practices and traditions worthy of recognition,\u201d he wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Chavez is accused of sexually assaulting or raping minors and Dolores Huerta, another civil rights hero, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/18\/us\/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html\">according to a New York Times report published Wednesday.<\/a> Huerta said she had two children after Chavez\u2019s assault and never spoke about his abuse to avoid damaging the farmworkers\u2019 movement.<\/p>\n<p>Serna in the statement proposed renaming Cesar Chavez Day to \u201cSacramento County Farm Workers Appreciation Day.\u201d The day is celebrated on March 31, the labor leader\u2019s birthday. It is commemorated as a holiday in cities across California, and is also a state holiday.<\/p>\n<p>Serna also requested county officials move the new holiday to a different date.<\/p>\n<p>Serna\u2019s father, former Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr., pushed to name the central plaza across from City Hall after Chavez in 1997. On Wednesday, a majority of Sacramento\u2019s City Council members, including Mayor Kevin McCarty, expressed support for stripping the Cesar E. Chavez name from the location.<\/p>\n<p>Serna wrote that the allegations left him heartbroken and angry. He did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is absolutely the right thing to do, at the right time, and for all the right reasons,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/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":"Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna proposed Wednesday that the county rename its Cesar Chavez holiday after sexual abuse&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[103096,103098,21873,103097,121,357,123,122],"class_list":["post-226467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-cesar-chavez-holiday","tag-farm-workers-appreciation","tag-phil-serna","tag-rename-holiday","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-county","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226467","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=226467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}