Tough week:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve gone through all the levels of grief, anger, everything and I think we need to rename them with a level head. But we can absolutely remove the name now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said the Port of San Diego\u2019s\u00a0Cesar Chavez Park<\/a>\u00a0had already scrubbed references to him and residents should let her know if they see any references. The Port\u2019s website calls it Port Park in Barrio Logan, for now. <\/p>\n She said the hardest one will be Cesar Chavez Parkway, which will lead businesses to absorb costs associated with renaming. The murals at Chicano Park will also be tough to handle. She said the park\u2019s steering committee will lead on that.<\/p>\n Over the weekend someone spraypainted over a mural of Chavez at Chicano Park.<\/p>\n \u201cThey absolutely need to go,\u201d she said. \u201cImagine your a victim of rape and seeing a freaking park named after him?\u201d<\/p>\n The Associated Press identified more than 130 locations or objects in at least 19 states named after Chavez, including libraries, boulevards, community centers and public parks. <\/p>\n Cesar Chavez Symbols<\/p>\n Reactions Across the United States <\/p>\n AP news reports that the statue at California State University, Fresno, is one of scores of monuments, city streets and elementary schools across the nation that honor\u00a0Chavez<\/a>\u00a0‘s name and his labor movement legacy. Cal State San Marcos also covered up a statue last week. <\/p>\n In Denver, city workers took down a bronze bust of Chavez in a park named after him. The city’s mayor said the park would be renamed.<\/p>\n Officials there and elsewhere also moved to\u00a0rename C\u00e9sar Chavez Day<\/a>, a federally proclaimed holiday on March 31, his birthday. Many planned\u00a0celebrations this month have been canceled<\/a>.<\/p>\n The allegations that Chavez sexually abused girls and women, including fellow movement leader Dolores Huerta, \u201ccall for our full attention and moral reckoning by removing his statue from our campus,” said Sa\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez-Sandoval, president of California State University, Fresno. It’s not clear how long that will take.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also not clear what will happen to the C\u00e9sar E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, California. It\u2019s where Chavez and his wife, Helen, are buried. It includes the office where some of the reported abuse took place.<\/p>\n Brian Hughes, of Vancouver, Canada, was among the monument\u2019s visitors Thursday morning. The stop was planned for the trip weeks ago.<\/p>\n \u201cNow it\u2019s difficult reconciling the inspirational side of his life and the stories with these revelations,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n A Push for Honoring Huerta Instead<\/p>\n At the Cesar Chavez Student Center at San Francisco State University on Thursday, student Luca Broggi Hendryx recalled hearing stories as a child about Chavez and idolizing him. Now he says the school needs to separate itself from Chavez by changing the student center\u2019s name.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first started coming here it made total sense: He was seen as an icon for the Latino civil rights movement,\u201d Hendryx said. \u201cSo it was almost a proud thing to have a building named after Cesar Chavez. But now it feels the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n In cities including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Portland, and Albuquerque officials said they would look at renaming landmarks such as buildings, streets and schools.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a duty to honor the dignity of the survivors and move forward in a way that reflects our values,\u201d Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said in a statement. She urged renaming C\u00e9sar Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day.<\/p>\n Denver for now will celebrate the holiday as S\u00ed, Se Puede Day, which translates into the farmworkers movement rallying cry \u2014 Yes We Can.<\/p>\n Mayor Mike Johnston said Denver would “not let the sins of one man set back the commitment of a community who has fought for decades to deliver on the fundamental belief that everyone is entitled to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Some called for Chavez\u2019s namesake places to be renamed for Huerta. The sign at Denver’s Cesar Chavez park was covered with a tarp Thursday, and someone had placed a handmade sign over it that said, \u201cDolores Huerta Park\u201d.<\/p>\n The New York Times first reported Wednesday that it found credible evidence that Chavez groomed and sexually abused young girls who worked in the movement. One of his victims, in fact, partly felt compelled to come forward after a recent proposal to name a street near her home for Chavez.<\/p>\n Huerta<\/a>, who was a labor legend in her own right and co-founded in 1962 with Chavez the National Farm Workers Association \u2014 which became the\u00a0United Farm Workers of America<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 revealed to the newspaper that she was a victim of abuse by him in her 30s.<\/p>\n When it comes to changing names of sites or events honoring Chavez, Teresa Romero, United Farm Workers president, said, \u201cEverybody\u2019s going to have to make their own decisions. I respect the victims, I respect the thousands of people who worked with the union throughout the years as volunteers, and that is not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n Dozens of Schools and a Navy Cargo Ship<\/p>\n Among the locations and objects bearing Chavez\u2019s name is a\u00a0U.S. Navy cargo ship<\/a>\u00a0commemorating his service during World War II and the national monument established in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama on a 187-acre site in Central California where Chavez once lived and worked.<\/p>\n Most of the locations are in California but they include sites in at least 19 states, from New York and Maryland to Oklahoma, the Great Lakes Region and Washington state.<\/p>\n About half are schools, primarily in California. In Pueblo, Colorado, Chavez shares the name of a school with Huerta.<\/p>\n Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee on Thursday said he would ask the Pentagon to remove Chavez\u2019s name from the Navy ship. \u201cWe are on it, Congressman\u201d Pentagon spokesperson Sam Parnell said in a social media post.<\/p>\n Altering a national monument, such as changing a name, needs an act of Congress or action by the president.<\/p>\n There have been previous efforts to change names for government sites and institutions on a broad scale.<\/p>\n During the civil rights backlash that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Congress ordered a nationwide review of military assets named after Confederate leaders.\u00a0Nine Army bases<\/a>\u00a0were renamed, only to have the\u00a0original names restored<\/a>\u00a0under President Donald Trump\u2019s administration last year after the army found other people with the same names to honor.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26078059582450-1024x683.jpg\")
A student looks toward a plywood box covering a statue of C\u00e9sar Chavez at California State University, Fresno in Fresno, Calif., Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26078830176123-1024x685.jpg\")
City workers remove a bust of C\u00e9sar Chavez at C\u00e9sar E. Chavez Park in Denver on Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n