{"id":233547,"date":"2026-04-03T14:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/233547\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:24:15","slug":"renaming-street-honoring-now-disgraced-cesar-e-chavez-could-be-rough-road-as-competing-ideas-take-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/233547\/","title":{"rendered":"Renaming\u00a0street honoring now-disgraced Cesar E. Chavez\u00a0could be rough road\u00a0as competing ideas take shape\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

A visibly worn green-and-white street sign hangs to one side of an equally weathered utility pole in North Lubbock. <\/p>\n

For\u00a0nearly 20\u00a0years, just a little downstream from University Avenue in the Canyon Lakes System, it stood \u2013 and still stands \u2013 as a symbol of the community effort recognizing a civil rights leader and the farm laborers he labored to elevate.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The day this battered street sign was photographed; dark grey clouds covered the afternoon sky \u2013 dulling its appearance more than usual. The letters, deformed by the passage of time and the unrelenting West Texas winds, are still legible. <\/p>\n

Cesar E. Chavez.<\/p>\n

His legacy has been soiled. What will Lubbock do about the street name?<\/p>\n

For some, it might echo the memories of when Lubbock changed a street name for another civil rights hero, erasing a word that was a blight to Lubbock\u2019s African American community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York Times investigation <\/p>\n

In mid-March there was a sudden nationwide push to remove the name Cesar Chavez from street names, event names or other landmark names like public schools \u2013 including Lubbock. <\/p>\n

The New York Times had just published an investigative article that Chavez \u2013 widely regarded as a civil rights hero \u2013 was credibly accused of sexually abusing women. The accounts from the early to mid-1970s included two who were underage girls at the time. <\/p>\n

I took it really personally.<\/p>\n

christy martinez-garcia<\/p>\n

The early discussions for renaming Austin and San Antonio in Texas and California cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Fresno \u2013 the San Joaquin Valley city where Chavez and Delores Huerta founded the United Farmworkers Association in 1962. <\/p>\n

The name of a March 28 Lubbock event was stripped of Chavez\u2019s name and replaced with \u201cCommUNITY Day of Service.\u201d But movement on Lubbock\u2019s Cesar E. Chavez Drive has been slower. <\/p>\n

\u201cI took it really personally,\u201d Christy Martinez-Garcia said of the day the Times released its article. <\/p>\n

Martinez-Garcia is the city councilmember for District 1, the publisher of Latino Lubbock Magazine and an event organizer for the CommUNITY Day of Service. <\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing the Chavez family personally \u2026 the brother of Cesar Chavez came to Lubbock when we did the street renaming. And I got to know the family really well,\u201d Martinez-Garcia said. <\/p>\n

Lubbock renamed a portion of Canyon Lake Drive in 2007 to get Cesar E. Chavez Drive. Now there\u2019s a \u201cvery heartbreaking\u201d discussion, said Martinez-Garcia, of renaming it again. <\/p>\n

\u201cI led the effort and organized folks from the community \u2013 got a lot of input. And annually we were doing the Cesar Chavez March so that we could recognize folks, our farm workers in the area. It took us a couple of years,\u201d Martinez-Garcia said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe covered it with a sheet. When it was time to unveil it \u2026 it wouldn\u2019t come down. So, they lifted a little boy up and he untangled it and it was unveiled. And to me, that was symbolic, even at the time, because it showed how we needed to support one another,\u201d Martinez-Garcia said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now we\u2019re reversing all that,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Clock ticks slower in Lubbock <\/p>\n

Martinez-Garcia wants to slow down any discussion of renaming. Mayor Mark McBrayer felt like there was a sudden public push to make changes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised and trying to make sense of why \u2013 what I would call \u2013 far more liberal cities than Lubbock were making a mad dash to change it immediately,\u201d McBrayer said. <\/p>\n

I figure it\u2019s going to be revisited in the next one-to-two months.<\/p>\n

mark mcbrayer<\/p>\n

McBrayer and other city officials need time to figure out the process since it\u2019s been nearly 20 years since this issue came up, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI figure it\u2019s going to be revisited in the next one-to-two months,\u201d McBrayer said. <\/p>\n

Martinez-Garcia said, \u201cOne of the recommendations that I\u2019m going to make is that we have a committee that can be respectful and with different perspectives, just so that it\u2019s fair.\u201d <\/p>\n

McBrayer said, \u201cI\u2019ve never particularly liked the idea of naming streets, whole streets, after people who really didn\u2019t have any connection directly to our city. \u2026 I\u2019ve never been real comfortable with the Cesar Chavez name change.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the desire to acknowledge and commemorate our Hispanic heritage in our community. And I want us to find good, positive ways to do that,\u201d McBrayer said. <\/p>\n

Lubbock has a way to rename portions of a street with honorary names while leaving the official street name alone. <\/p>\n

McBrayer mentioned Suzanne Aker Avenue along a portion of Avenue L as an example. The street signs get brown and white \u201ctoppers\u201d to designate the honorary name while the official name stays the same. <\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of prefer that,\u201d McBrayer said \u2013 pointing out that businesses incur expenses when they have to change their mailing address. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s not suggesting changing any more names that already exist. <\/p>\n

I know people have also said they wanted to name it after Dolores Huerta, but I think right now all of that is controversial.<\/p>\n

christy Martinez-Garcia<\/p>\n

A city ordinance emphasizes the need for a local connection on honorary names. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed name must reflect or represent Lubbock, Texas in a significant and positive manner in a field of government, education, medicine, athletics or the arts,\u201d Lubbock\u2019s street ordinance said. <\/p>\n

Lubbock Democratic Party Chair Margie Ceja said in a statement, \u201cWe call on our community to take action and rename the street currently honoring Cesar Chavez to Dolores Huerta. Lubbock must stand for truth, accountability and the courage to do what is right.\u201d <\/p>\n

Martinez-Garcia responded, \u201cI know people have also said they wanted to name it after Dolores Huerta, but I think right now all of that is controversial.\u201d <\/p>\n

Huerta is a national figure, not local. <\/p>\n

Some local names mentioned repeatedly in interviews for this article included Oralia \u201cLala,\u201d Lauro and Richard Cavazos along with Maggie Trejo, Richard Lopez and Spanish explorer Francisco V\u00e1squez de Coronado. <\/p>\n

While McBrayer prefers local names, he felt there was one exception. <\/p>\n

\u201cMartin Luther King is not a person who lived here or was raised here, but \u2026 he\u2019s sort of an almost unique character in our nation\u2019s history, at least to me, he is. And so, he might be the one exception to that rule. I guess every rule has to have an exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of Quirt Avenue <\/p>\n

The first time Lubbock renamed a street in honor of a civil rights giant was 1993 \u2013 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. David Langston was mayor at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe name of the street was Quirt, and there was, as you can imagine, quite a strong feeling among the African American community that that wasn\u2019t a very appropriate street to be right there,\u201d Langston said. <\/p>\n

A quirt was, according to dictionary.com<\/a>, \u201ca riding whip consisting of a short, stout stock and a lash of braided leather.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

An Internet search showed that quirts were sometimes used to beat slaves. <\/p>\n

T.J. Patterson, a city councilmember at the time and a local civil rights leader, led the effort to rid the city of the name Quirt Avenue. <\/p>\n

LubbockLights.com publisher Scott Mann shared a pair of stories illustrating why this was so important. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy great-great-grandfather, whose name was William G. Nairn, was one of the founders of Lubbock. He was here when it was founded. His name is on that sign at Avenue A and about 19th,\u201d Mann said. <\/p>\n

He remembered years ago an older man at Broadway Church of Christ telling him about Nairn, Mann said. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018We thought that he was rich because all we had was a Model T, and he had a black surrey with two matched ponies pulling it. And it just looked like the finest thing in all the world,\u2019\u201d Mann recalled the old man saying. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s what they used to beat my people. And I don\u2019t want a street running through my district named Quirt.<\/p>\n

Scott Mann, quoting T.J. patterson<\/p>\n

\u201cThat stuck with me because I could see my great-great-grandfather driving that buggy. And I can promise you what he had in his hand. It was a quirt,\u201d Mann said. <\/p>\n

Fast forward to the early 1990s. Mann was the local Republican party chair, and Patterson was building support to change the name of Quirt Avenue. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Mr. Republican.\u2019 That\u2019s what he called me. He said, \u2018Mr. Republican, do you know what a quirt is?\u2019 Yeah, I know what it is. And I had in mind my great-great-grandfather driving that buggy with a quirt in his hand,\u201d Mann said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I only got my answer half out before he said, \u2026 \u2018It\u2019s what they used to beat my people. And I don\u2019t want a street running through my district named Quirt.\u2019 And then he said, \u2018I need your help,\u2019\u201d Mann recalled. <\/p>\n

Mann didn\u2019t believe Patterson needed any help. He was just giving folks a chance to do the right thing. <\/p>\n

Mann had prepared reasons in advance to say no, he said. They didn\u2019t matter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen T.J. Patterson approaches you like that with that kind of power, and with that kind of rationale, your petty little reasons \u2013 they just evaporate,\u201d Mann said. <\/p>\n

Langston said, \u201cMartin Luther King was a controversial figure among certain segments of our community and they were opposed to the name itself. But, of course, it passed with a good majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langston remembers a march down Broadway to the newly renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and a day of celebration. <\/p>\n

What about Canyon Lake Drive? <\/p>\n

Does the street need to be named after a person? <\/p>\n

Martinez-Garcia said, \u201cHonestly, if it were up to me, I don\u2019t think it should be named after a person at this point.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her thought was to use a word like \u201cunity\u201d or doing a play on words with unity in community. <\/p>\n

Canyon Lake Drive is a nice name. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n

former mayor david langston<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s definitely unchartered waters for everybody, but I appreciate that we didn\u2019t just rush right into it immediately. \u2026 It\u2019s not something that one person can determine,\u201d Martinez-Garcia said.<\/p>\n

McBrayer said, \u201cI thought the name of the street as it was, Canyon Lake Drive, was pretty descriptive of what the road was.\u201d <\/p>\n

Langston agreed, saying, \u201cCanyon Lake Drive is a nice name. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Martinez-Garcia said, \u201cIt took a lot to get to this street name of Cesar Chavez. And I think it\u2019ll be a lot to take it down. It\u2019s tough. It\u2019s very tough. And like I said, it\u2019s very painful because it was just someone that had so much significance \u2013 so iconic to a lot of people.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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