AUSTIN, TEXAS – AUGUST 16: Co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association, Dolores Huerta speaks during the “Stop the Trump takeover” demonstration outside of the State Capitol on August 16, 2025 in Austin, Texas. Over 200 nationwide demonstrations occurred today against the Trump administration’s newly introduced redistricting plans. Earlier last week, Texas Democratic lawmakers fled to Illinois in an attempt to protest and deny quorum for votes on the proposed Republican redistricting plan, which would secure five additional GOP seats in the U.S. House. The Democratic lawmakers are preparing to return to Texas early next week after the special legislative session called by Gov. Greg Abbott came to an end yesterday. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Brandon Bell
Getty Images
A Tarrant County organization has changed its name and will not hold its annual march after revelations this week that Cesar Chavez sexually abused girls and women.
The Cesar Chavez & Dolores Huerta Committee of Tarrant County, which formed in 2016, issued a statement Thursday saying it will go by ¡Sí Se Puede! Committee of Tarrant County.
Sí Se Puede is the iconic motto of the United Farm Workers of America, which was founded by both Chavez and Huerta. This change comes after a New York Times investigation published Wednesday revealed that Chavez, who died in 1993, groomed and assaulted girls for years who were connected to the movement.
Huerta, who is 95, told the newspaper she was raped and impregnated twice by Chavez.
“Our local organization is led by a majority of women,” the Tarrant County committee said in its statement, “and we will continue our organization’s work rooted in integrity, dignity, innovation, and a Sí Se Puede attitude.”
The committee said it had added Huerta to its name last year.
“For too long, women’s leadership in the farmworker and civil rights movements has been erased, minimized, or overlooked. Dolores Huerta is a visionary organizer in her own right, yet historically, her contributions often remain in the shadows. We now know she is also a survivor. We believe justice requires accountability—and representation.”
The statement said the committee will remove references to Chavez from its social media and materials going forward. It will support survivors and reject abusers in their movement. The new name will be temporary until the organization permanently rebrands itself.
This year, the organization is not hosting its annual March for Justice. The organization instead will focus on nonviolent action and on how its communities are being targeted and attacked. They will collaborate with Indivisible for the No Kings rally in downtown Fort Worth on March 28.
“The movement our work is connected to is bigger than any one person,” the committee’s statement said. “We remain committed to working toward social justice. Together, we will build a movement that is accountable, inclusive, and steadfast in the pursuit of justice.”
Chavez and Huerta helped found the National Farm Workers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers. United Farm Workers aims to empower migrant workers through nonviolent tactics to have livable wages and safe working conditions.
On Tuesday, the union said it will not take part in any Cesar Chavez Day activities.
In Texas and across the country, Chavez’s name is on schools, streets, neighborhoods, buildings, universities and parks. Fort Worth has Cesar Chavez Primary School in Diamond Hill. Downtown Dallas has a boulevard named after him. In Texas, Cesar Chavez Day has been considered an optional state holiday, though Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that’s coming to an end.
In 2018, Fort Worth ISD voted unanimously to add a new holiday, César Chávez-Dolores Huerta Day, which is observed annually on the Monday before Chávez’s birthday on March 31.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare said it would be inappropriate to recognize Cesar Chavez Day. He aims to replace the holiday with Veterans Day in the 2027 calendar.
Commissioner Manny Ramirez, a father of three daughters and a grandson of migrant farm workers, said he can no longer honor or celebrate Cesar Chavez in any way. He called the allegations a “betrayal of trust and power.”
The Texas House of Representatives’ Mexican American Legislative Caucus said it’s “prepared to lead efforts to remove the Cesar Chavez state holiday and replace it with recognition that uplift leaders like Dolores Huerta.”
“No one, regardless of their status or legacy, is above accountability,” the caucus said in a written statement. “When a leader puts himself ahead of the people and the movement he was meant to serve, that is a profound betrayal of the very values that movement was built on. We stand with survivors and support a full and transparent reckoning.”
Huerta issued a statement after the New York Times story published.
“I will continue my commitments to workers, as well as my commitment to women’s rights, to make sure we have a voice and that our communities are treated with dignity and given the equity that they have so long been denied,” she said.
She continued her statement saying, “I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2026 at 11:05 AM.
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Kamal Morgan covers racial equity issues for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He came to Texas from the Pensacola News Journal in Florida. Send tips to his email or Twitter.