{"id":490014,"date":"2026-10-09T04:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/490014\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T04:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:44:09","slug":"san-jose-could-combine-two-options-to-rename-downtown-plaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/490014\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose could combine two options to rename downtown plaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nearly 250-year-old gathering place in downtown San Jose could soon have a new name, combining two of the top-ranked choices from the city\u2019s monthslong renaming process.<\/p>\n

The San Jose Parks and Recreation Commission voted Wednesday to recommend renaming Plaza de C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez to Plaza del Pueblo de San Jose, a name proposed by Commissioner Daisy Barocio during the meeting. The City Council will make a final decision on the name at a later date.<\/p>\n

Barocio said the city should not lose sight of the Latino history behind the plaza\u2019s original name. Ch\u00e1vez and the farmworker movement remain important to many Latino residents, she said, particularly because relatively few public spaces are named in honor of Mexican people.<\/p>\n

But Barocio said the new name does not necessarily need to honor an individual. She initially felt Plaza de San Jose did not fully capture the history behind the plaza\u2019s 1993 naming or create a sense of belonging for the broader community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt honors the people who wanted the Plaza de San Jose,\u201d Barocio told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cIt also does include the new component \u2026 it\u2019s a pueblo. And San Jose started as a pueblo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s recommendation differs from city staff\u2019s proposed name, Plaza de San Jose, which received the most suggestions<\/a> during the city\u2019s initial naming process<\/a>. Plaza del Pueblo was the third-most suggested name, while Farmworkers Plaza ranked second.<\/p>\n

The result is the latest in San Jose\u2019s effort to rename<\/a> the plaza<\/a> following community listening sessions and a suggested name submission period.<\/p>\n

Councilmembers voted earlier this year to begin removing Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s name<\/a> from city-owned sites, following allegations<\/a> that the late labor leader sexually abused women and children<\/a>. Ch\u00e1vez called San Jose home<\/a>\u00a0at various points in his life and has\u00a0long been celebrated<\/a> in the city.<\/p>\n

The city received 610 name suggestions during its first survey, eliminating 178 that did not meet its naming criteria and consolidating the remaining suggestions into 88 categories. A second ranked-choice survey drew 10,506 responses, with Plaza de San Jose receiving the highest weighted score.<\/p>\n

But some residents who spoke during Wednesday\u2019s commission meeting wanted a name that more explicitly reflected San Jose\u2019s Mexican and Indigenous history.<\/p>\n

Israel Mendoza urged commissioners to choose Plaza de Quetzalcoatl, another finalist in the naming process. Quetzalcoatl, known as the \u201cFeathered Serpent,\u201d is a Mesoamerican god associated with wind, learning and creation. There is a statu<\/a>e<\/a>\u00a0of his image at the plaza, called \u201cPlumed Serpent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t take the easy way out and put this place as San Jose Plaza,\u201d Mendoza said at the meeting. \u201cThat\u2019s the easy way out. You gotta call it something different, something unique. We can teach the kids our ancestry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In-line<\/a><\/p>\n

Rosendo Contreras, a high school Spanish teacher in Fremont who has lived in San Jose for five years, suggested a compromise during public comment: Give the plaza a formal name while allowing residents to use an everyday name.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Jose has a really deep Hispanic history, but it\u2019s not the only voice in San Jose,\u201d he said. \u201cSo with this two-name solution, we get a little bit more happiness, a little more of a compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or @CasasPerezRed on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nearly 250-year-old gathering place in downtown San Jose could soon have a new name, combining two of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[712,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-490014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-centerpiece","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490014","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=490014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}