{"id":228902,"date":"2026-03-20T18:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/228902\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T18:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:38:19","slug":"fresno-state-swiftly-removes-cesar-chavez-statue-following-sexual-abuse-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/228902\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno State Swiftly Removes C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez Statue Following Sexual Abuse Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresno State has moved swiftly to remove a statue of the late union leader C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez after bombshell reports accusing him of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monument has now been removed from our Peace Garden,\u201d university president Sa\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez-Sandoval said in a statement. \u201cThis action reflects the gravity of the information that has come to light. As a university grounded in principles of community, we have a responsibility to respond with moral clarity when faced with allegations of this nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

The university placed a black tarp over the statue Wednesday morning, following a statement from United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta. Huerta revealed that Ch\u00e1vez had raped her twice in the 1960s, resulting in two pregnancies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to that, the New York Times released a multi-year investigation of Ch\u00e1vez, reporting that he raped two underage girls.<\/p>\n

The news shook the Central Valley, where the farmworker rights movement began. And Fresno State took steps to acknowledge this, moving to provide support resources and reexamine how they are honoring this history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tragedy of this situation invites us to take a broader look at how we honor history across our campus, through monuments, namings, tributes, and how best to commemorate people and events of great significance,\u201d Jim\u00e9nez-Sandoval said.<\/p>\n

New Group to Collaborate on Future Tributes<\/p>\n

Fresno State will form a broader working group, including both campus and community voices, to help take a more deliberate approach to \u201chonoring our shared history.\u201d This group will collaborate on future tributes.<\/p>\n

The university unveiled the statue in 1996, located among other civil rights leaders in the campus Peace Garden.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if another monument will replace the spot formerly occupied by the Ch\u00e1vez statue.<\/p>\n

California lawmakers are seeking to rename C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez day, March 31, to Farmworkers Day, showing a broader move to recognize the movement as a whole rather than one of the former leaders. The day was initially selected because it was Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno State has moved swiftly to remove a statue of the late union leader C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez after bombshell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-228902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228902","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=228902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}