{"id":249275,"date":"2026-04-03T00:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/249275\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T00:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:25:15","slug":"cesar-chavez-mural-in-downtown-bakersfield-vandalized-with-believe-survivors-graffiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/249275\/","title":{"rendered":"Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield vandalized with \u201cBelieve Survivors\u201d graffiti"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) The Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield was found painted over Thursday morning with the words \u201cBelieve survivors,\u201d sparking fresh debate about the late labor leader and the allegations raised against him.<\/p>\n<p>The mural is located near 18th Street and L Street.<\/p>\n<p>The vandalism comes weeks after a New York Times article accused Chavez of sexually abusing girls and women during the 1960s and 1970s. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield vandalized with \u201cBelieve Survivors\u201d graffiti (AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/281bf34e-02f7-4e53-a1bc-425772c83638-AP26077790983114.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield vandalized with \u201cBelieve Survivors\u201d graffiti (AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu)<\/p>\n<p>Dolores Huerta, once considered a Chavez ally, also claims Chavez raped her and that she gave birth to two children from those encounters.<\/p>\n<p>Bakersfield City Councilmember Zach Bashirtash said in a statement, \u201cI\u2019m sure people are incredibly frustrated by still seeing his face on the wall. Why it hasn\u2019t been taken down yet or covered up is a surprise to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a separate statement, Bakersfield City Councilman Andrae Gonzales said, \u201cThe property owner says the mural had been planned be removed as soon as April 4th.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield vandalized with \u201cBelieve Survivors\u201d graffiti (KBAK\/KBFX)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0555fec0-e084-4ae7-bed2-73c862dedd3a-mural.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield vandalized with \u201cBelieve Survivors\u201d graffiti (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n<p>Residents expressed mixed feelings about both Chavez and the vandalism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t blame them for defacing it honestly. I feel that he was a global hero and someone that a lot of people look up to and it&#8217;s a little disappointing to hear what he did and for the survivors to now speak out I applaud them,\u201d said Alexis Corbin, a Bakersfield local.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield vandalized with \u201cBelieve Survivors\u201d graffiti (AP Photo\/Harold Filan, File)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/291b7043-f153-4b77-acc5-ef6335c56459-AP26084682860791.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield vandalized with \u201cBelieve Survivors\u201d graffiti (AP Photo\/Harold Filan, File)<\/p>\n<p>Rosario Ortiz, also a Bakersfield local, said, \u201cYou know I don\u2019t believe of coming out now after so many years, and I get it. Everybody has a different opinion, but I just feel he did what he did for his workers and everybody else to help the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) The Cesar Chavez mural in downtown Bakersfield was found painted over Thursday morning with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-249275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249275","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=249275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}