Elected officials in California and other states are grappling with how to respond to accusations of sexual abuse by Cesar Chavez days before the March 31 holiday honoring the labor leader’s birthday.
Mr. Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers and has been hailed as a civil rights hero for decades, was accused of sexually abusing two underage girls in the 1970s while he was working to help immigrant farmworkers in an investigation that The New York Times published on Wednesday. Mr. Chavez died in 1993 at age 66.
In a separate accusation, Mr. Chavez’s most prominent ally in the farm labor movement, Dolores Huerta, 95, told The Times she had been raped by Mr. Chavez and kept it a secret for nearly 60 years because she did not want to tarnish the reputation of the farm labor movement that she had worked so hard to build.
In the hours after the allegations became public, many state and local leaders raced on Wednesday to distance themselves from Mr. Chavez. The governors of Texas and Arizona almost immediately moved to cancel state observances of Cesar Chavez Day on March 31.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass, along with women serving on the City Council, said they were planning to sign a proclamation on Thursday to erase Mr. Chavez’s name and rename the holiday “Farm Workers Day” in the city, the mayor’s office said. They also planned to move the annual holiday to the last Monday each March, untethering it from Mr. Chavez’s birthday.
More fallout could come on Thursday, when California state lawmakers will convene in floor sessions. Democrats who control the state Legislature committed Wednesday to renaming the holiday, though they have not yet announced a timeline or proposed a new name.
The clock is ticking, given that Cesar Chavez Day is in only 12 days. Many elected officials said Wednesday they needed time to deliberate, saying they were still processing the allegations while they condemned the sexual abuse detailed in the Times investigation.
That included Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime friend of Ms. Huerta’s. During a news conference to discuss financial literacy at a Bay Area school library, Mr. Newsom said he would discuss with state legislators whether to rename the state holiday that had been observed since 2000, when California became the first state to recognize it as a paid day off.
“None of us knew,” Mr. Newsom said. “We need to reflect.”
Mr. Chavez was born to Mexican immigrants in 1927 near Yuma, Ariz., and later worked as a farm laborer in the Central Valley of California with his family. With two other activists, Ms. Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, he created the National Farm Workers Association, which later merged with another union to form the United Farm Workers. The workers drew national attention when they marched hundreds of miles to Sacramento to secure union recognition and higher wages.
In the decades since Mr. Chavez died, his status as a labor hero and Latino icon grew to outsize proportions, especially across the Southwest. His name and likeness have been attached to numerous streets, schools and parks nationwide. No state has recognized him more deeply than California, where nearly 50 schools are named for him, according to the state’s Department of Education.
But for some leaders in California, where Mr. Chavez rose to prominence after the farmworker movement began in the 1960s, the accusations of Mr. Chavez’s predatory behavior struck on a personal level. Those who remembered meeting and feeling inspired by Mr. Chavez’s leadership were trying to reconcile their early admiration for the man with the troubling allegations against him.
Antonio Villaraigosa, who in 2005 became the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles in modern history, recalled on Wednesday feeling inspired by what he called Mr. Chavez’s “quiet dignity and seeming selflessness” when, as a 15-year-old activist, he met the labor leader.
Still, Mr. Villaraigosa, a Democrat running for governor, called the allegations of sexual violence “shocking, painful and deeply troubling.” He added: “No individual, no matter how revered, is above accountability.”
While governments are likely to act soon to recast the upcoming Cesar Chavez holiday, renaming buildings, schools and programs could take months, if not years.
At the University of California, Berkeley, where the student center has celebrated Mr. Chavez since 1997, a committee of community members must first agree to rechristen a building. Then, the public needs an opportunity to provide feedback, followed by a recommendation to the school’s chancellor. Ultimately, the president of the U.C. system has the final say.
A University of California spokeswoman, Rachel Zaentz, said the 10-campus U.C. system was “deeply concerned about these troubling reports.” She added: “We stand firmly with survivors and are evaluating these findings internally. We will communicate updates when appropriate.”
Other schools moved quickly to do what they could within their immediate control. At Fresno State University, a statue of Mr. Chavez was covered up, and the university’s president, Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, said officials would “determine appropriate next steps for its removal.”
In Los Angeles County, Hilda Solis, the chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and a former Obama administration official, said on Wednesday that she planned to ask her colleagues to explore renaming the holiday and to start a process for renaming parks, monuments and streets. She also wants to remove Mr. Chavez’s image from public artwork.
“Our responsibility is to center survivors, demand accountability and ensure that our public recognitions reflect our shared values,” said Ms. Solis, a close friend of Ms. Huerta’s.
In Sacramento, Mayor Kevin McCarty said he had begun the process of renaming Cesar Chavez Plaza, which sits across the street from City Hall. Elsewhere in the city, the California Museum board of trustees on Wednesday began the process of removing Mr. Chavez from the California Hall of Fame, where he had been enshrined in 2006 as part of the inaugural class.
The announcement came the night before Mr. Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, planned to induct the 19th Hall of Fame class on Thursday. Museum officials pointed out that Ms. Huerta remains a member of the seventh class and Larry Itliong, a Filipino American labor organizer, is a member of the 14th class.
Before the Times investigation was published, the Cesar Chavez Foundation and the U.F.W. released statements on Tuesday acknowledging the abuse allegations. Foundation officials said they were “deeply shocked and saddened” and working to support those who may have been harmed.
The U.F.W. said the organizations had established a channel “for those who wish to share their experiences of harm, to identify their current impacts and needs, and, if desired, to participate in a collective process to develop mechanisms for repair and accountability.”
The allegations could have legal and financial implications for the union.
Under California law, survivors of sexual abuse can file civil lawsuits until age 40 or within five years of discovering an emotional injury linked to the abuse. If the sexual abuse occurred after the survivor turned 18, a new state law now allows sex assault claims to be filed through Dec. 31, 2027. If the survivor was facing a physical or emotional threat, the statute of limitations must be paused until the threat goes away.
Soumya Karlamangla, Jill Cowan, Jennifer Medina, Heather Knight and Alan Blinder contributed reporting.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
The post More Cesar Chavez Fallout Expected After Sex Abuse Accusations appeared first on New York Times.
