{"id":277709,"date":"2026-04-21T00:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/277709\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T00:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:50:04","slug":"fresno-took-30-years-to-name-cesar-chavez-blvd-undoing-it-took-a-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/277709\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Took 30 Years to Name Cesar Chavez Blvd. Undoing It Took a Day."},"content":{"rendered":"

For 30 years, Latino farmworkers in Fresno, Calif., watched as other cities named streets in honor of Cesar Chavez. San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, swiftly paid tribute not long after his death in 1993. The state of California made Cesar Chavez Day a paid holiday in 2000. <\/p>\n

Yet here, in the heart of the Central Valley \u2014 \u201cAmerica\u2019s Food Basket\u201d \u2014 Fresno long refused to designate a road to honor the leader revered by workers who toiled in nearby fields. The reasons were complicated, a mix of the community\u2019s history and farmers\u2019 resentment.<\/p>\n

Finally, after decades of persuasion and with a new Latino majority on the Fresno City Council, city leaders voted in 2023 to establish Cesar Chavez Boulevard.<\/p>\n

While it took Fresno three decades to name a street after Mr. Chavez, it took only one day to rescind it.<\/p>\n

At a hastily convened meeting Thursday, the seven-member City Council voted unanimously to begin the process of erasing Mr. Chavez\u2019s name after The New York Times published explosive sexual abuse accusations<\/a> against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis council and a lot of leaders in California and the nation are going to hopefully put on a master class in what accountability looks like,\u201d Nelson Esparza, the council president, said. <\/p>\n

The one-hour meeting at council chambers offered a profound look at the aftermath of a downfall. It was one of the nation\u2019s first public bodies to remove Mr. Chavez\u2019s name, and a preview of what will transpire in communities across the United States as the reckoning unfolds. They will have to work through personal connections and deep feelings \u2014 and they may reopen wounds. <\/p>\n

Inside the Fresno council chambers, there was a mix of solemnity and anger. There was also relief from those who had long opposed the name change, though they said they took no joy from the reasons.<\/p>\n

Before members of the public were allowed to comment, three City Council members hoisted the old, green street signs that had been in storage since the Chavez renaming and displayed the placards on the dais. <\/p>\n

Kings Canyon Road. Ventura Avenue. California Avenue.<\/p>\n

Older supporters of Mr. Chavez\u2019s farmworker movement were devastated, especially those with living memories of the man. They had felt his impact in every bathroom or water break during sweltering summers in the field. <\/p>\n

Three of them at the meeting spoke in distressed voices as they urged the council to take more time to contemplate their decision. They said they were as upset that the council was intent on giving the boulevard its previous names as they were with its not devising a new name to honor farmworkers.<\/p>\n

Angel Noriega, 64, attended the meeting, but was too upset to speak. A former farmworker who had known Mr. Chavez personally, he was still incredulous about the allegations published this week. He was particularly insulted by the council members who placed the hulking old signs on the dais.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t want Chavez\u2019s name, then they can name it \u2018Farmworker Movement\u2019 or something else,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they\u2019re not saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Miguel Arias was the Fresno city councilman who led the charge to establish Cesar Chavez Boulevard. On Thursday, he was the same one who moved to remove Mr. Chavez\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Mr. Arias said he was still grieving, too. He is a former farmworker, and said he felt like he was about to pass out when he heard that Dolores Huerta, who had co-founded the union, had said Mr. Chavez raped her.<\/p>\n

He felt indignant on behalf of the victims, as well as a deep sense of loss, because Mr. Chavez could no longer be regarded as a hero.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the death of a family member,\u201d Mr. Arias said. \u201cIt\u2019s that level of impact for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the city, there was even swifter action. Hours after The Times published its investigation, officials at California State University, Fresno, built a plywood box around its statue of Mr. Chavez.<\/p>\n

Mr. Arias said he understood why some residents, especially those in the farmworker community, were upset that the City Council was acting so quickly, but considered it partly \u201ca reflection that they\u2019re still in the grieving phase.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s decision begins the renaming process, which will include additional hearings and allow new name suggestions, after which the council will again vote. The mayor, Jerry Dyer, has the power to veto the idea, but he has indicated he supported removing Mr. Chavez\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Mr. Arias said that the most viable choice was to return to the old names. For a city facing budget cuts, it made fiscal sense, he said. The city kept most of the old signs, and the cost would be nominal, he said.<\/p>\n

And he noted there would be residents who would fight to keep the original names, just as they had since the 1990s when activists first proposed naming the boulevard after Mr. Chavez.<\/p>\n

The historically Black area of west Fresno had long wanted to preserve the name California Avenue. The road had come to define that community\u2019s history<\/a>. In downtown, the historically Armenian community and agricultural businesses preferred Ventura Avenue and Kings Canyon Road. <\/p>\n

In past debates, some residents said they respected Cesar Chavez\u2019s labor fight but felt that his name should instead grace a street in another Fresno neighborhood. On Thursday, neighborhood leaders at the meeting said they were glad to see their streets return to their original names, at least for now, though they had sympathy for those who felt betrayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been about our desire to preserve the historical names of the streets in our community, the names that we grew up around,\u201d said B.T. Lewis, the pastor of a Baptist Church in west Fresno. He added: \u201cThis is an opportunity to let those of you who are of our Latino community, in particular, know that we love you, we hold you in high regard and that this is an opportunity to support you during this very serious time in your community.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr. Arias recalled the long journey to making Cesar Chavez Boulevard a reality. He and others endured intense backlash. The city was sued after the City Council approved the change in 2023, delaying installation of the new signs to 2024.<\/p>\n

Still, he said, he had no hesitation this week after he saw the allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSexual abuse is nonnegotiable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 30 years, Latino farmworkers in Fresno, Calif., watched as other cities named streets in honor of Cesar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[111331,10730,38513,119864,102989,112,119861,114,113,119862,119865,9976,1071,87316,65326,119863,42167],"class_list":{"0":"post-277709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-agriculture-and-farming","9":"tag-cesar","10":"tag-chavez","11":"tag-city-councils","12":"tag-dolores","13":"tag-fresno","14":"tag-fresno-calif","15":"tag-fresno-headlines","16":"tag-fresno-news","17":"tag-geographical","18":"tag-hispanic-americans","19":"tag-huerta","20":"tag-local-government","21":"tag-names","22":"tag-organized-labor","23":"tag-signs-and-signage","24":"tag-united-farm-workers-of-america"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277709","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=277709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}