Dominic Anthony Walsh / Houston Public Media
Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia at a Houston city council meeting on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
The city of Houston could soon rename César Chávez Boulevard in honor of Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union alongside Chávez.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire last week announced that the city had begun the process of renaming the street after the New York Times reported allegations that Chávez, who died in 1993, sexually abused women and girls involved in the Latino labor and civil rights movement, including Huerta. Chávez also is the namesake of a high school in Houston ISD, and the district recently renamed its March 30 school holiday from Chávez-Huerta Day to Farm Workers Day.
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, spoke at Wednesday’s Houston City Council meeting and said she’s in favor of renaming the street after Huerta. Garcia is a former farmworker and knows Huerta personally, she said.
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“Dolores Huerta represents the very best of that movement,” Garcia said. “She represents the workers who feed this nation, the women who fought to be heard, the communities that organized and demanded change.”
District I city council member Joaquin Martinez, who represents the area where the boulevard is located, expressed support for renaming the street after Huerta.
“We would like to see this done as quickly as possible to ensure that we can begin to move on and heal, but quite frankly, honor Latinos (and) Chicanos, within our own spaces as well,” he said during Wednesday’s council meeting.
The city is sending notices to the 38 business owners along the street that would be impacted by the name change and is collecting public comment this month. The council is expected to vote on the name change on May 13 and, if approved, will install new signs over the course of the following month, according to a social media post from the mayor’s office.