{"id":239426,"date":"2026-03-27T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239426\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:23:08","slug":"california-renames-cesar-chavez-day-long-beach-city-council-votes-to-begin-doing-the-same-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239426\/","title":{"rendered":"California renames C\u00e9sar Chavez Day; Long Beach City Council votes to begin doing the same \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday to rename C\u00e9sar Chavez<\/a>\u00a0Day as Farmworkers Day in an effort to reconcile the Latino labor icon\u2019s legacy with explosive sexual abuse allegations before the state holiday on March 31.<\/p>\n

The state Senate approved the legislation earlier in the day with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

The change comes after allegations became public last week that Chavez had\u00a0sexually abused girls and women<\/a>\u00a0during his days building a major farmworker labor rights movement in the 1960s in California\u2019s agricultural heartland. Among those who accused him was\u00a0Dolores Huerta<\/a>, who co-led the movement that eventually became the United Farm Workers.<\/p>\n

Long Beach is also responding to the accusations. On Tuesday, the City Council voted to revise its policy recognizing C\u00e9sar Chavez Day, begin renaming its C\u00e9sar Chavez Park in downtown, and encourage the local school system and colleges to rename any of their monuments to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a daughter of immigrants and a proud daughter of a farmworker, what we experienced this past week has really, really been devastating to me personally,\u201d said Councilmember Mary Zendajas. \u201cIt takes an incredible amount of courage to publicly come out against someone like C\u00e9sar Chavez, whose structure was admired and hailed as heroic in the American labor movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A pedestrian walks past the front of Cesar Chavez Elementary School in downtown Long Beach on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s vote directed city staff to get feedback and naming suggestions from residents before moving forward with a final renaming vote. They hope to land on something that recognizes the broader farmworkers movement and its women leaders.<\/p>\n

Efforts to rename the holiday are part of a wave of other moves to alter memorials honoring the man<\/a>\u00a0who, in the 1960s and 1970s,\u00a0helped secure better wages<\/a>\u00a0and working conditions for farmworkers and had been\u00a0admired by many Democratic leaders<\/a>. The swift and sweeping effort to erase Chavez\u2019s name from public life was previously unthinkable, as his status had only grown more iconic since his death in 1993.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Suzette Valladares said Thursday that her family built a life in California by working the fields and that the movement brought together workers from different backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about one person. This is not about one narrative,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about honoring generations of sacrifice, of resilience and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limon said honoring farmworkers is especially important in the face of a series of federal raids across the state last year. A worker in her district\u00a0died after being chased<\/a>\u00a0by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last summer, Limon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis death is a reminder of how much farmworkers risk every day to put food on our table,\u201d she said before the vote. \u201cOur farmworkers remind us that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

California was the first state to designate Chavez\u2019s birthday, March 31, as a holiday to honor the civil rights leader nearly 30 years ago. The Legislature then, in 2000, passed a bill to make it an official paid day off for state employees and require that students learn about his legacy and his role in the labor movement in California. The legislation passed Thursday didn\u2019t address the curriculum requirement. State leaders said they\u2019re in conversation with school officials to adjust lesson plans.<\/p>\n

The California bill also passed in the Assembly with bipartisan support on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot ignore wrongdoing and we should not continue to celebrate a single person when the movement itself is so much bigger,\u201d Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry said before the vote Monday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>FILE \u2013 United Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez talks to striking Salinas Valley farmworkers during a large rally in Salinas, Calif., on March 7, 1979. AP Photo by Paul Sakuma, File.<\/p>\n

Since the allegations came to light, California State University, Fresno, has covered up Chavez\u2019s statue on campus, while cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento have taken steps to erase his name from public landmarks. Some advocated for Huerta\u2019s name to replace Chavez\u2019s, and several states already said they won\u2019t observe the day.<\/p>\n

As his birthday approaches, cities across the country have remade or canceled annual celebrations to honor him. In Tucson last weekend, the annual C\u00e9sar Chavez and Dolores Huerta March and Rally were scaled back and rebranded. There was no march or car show, and it was billed instead as the Comunidad y Labor Unity Fair to focus more broadly on labor rights without mentioning Chavez.<\/p>\n

In Grand Junction, Colorado, the organizers of the annual event in Mesa County had already printed flyers and T-shirts, all bearing Chavez\u2019s name. There has been a flurry of social media posts in recent days to let people know the event will go on Saturday as the S\u00ed, Se Puede Celebration instead.<\/p>\n

In El Paso, Texas, March 31 will be celebrated as the Community and Labor Heritage Day.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan and Long Beach Post editor Jeremiah Dobruck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday to rename C\u00e9sar Chavez\u00a0Day as Farmworkers Day in an effort to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[102337,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-239426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-cesar-chavez-day","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239426","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=239426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}