U.S. grapples with how to cancel Cesar Chavez
Rep. Sam Liccardo was a new lawmaker, still new to Capitol Hill this summer, when he led more than 20 colleagues in a letter warning the Pentagon not to even think about renaming the USNS Cesar Chavez.
As of Thursday, it was difficult to find the letter, press releases or posts on the lawmaker’s social media accounts.
Reports this week detailed how Chavez, who died in 1993, victimized women and girls who worked with his United Farm Workers movement. Former advocates were suddenly quick to erase their celebrations of the Hispanic rights activist.
Across the country, communities are rushing to remove memorials they have erected over the past three decades.
Cesar Chavez, agricultural union leader, speaks…
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“For me and my district, we are going to seek to rename the high school that is named after him and the road that is named after him,” said Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Texas Democrat who represents part of Houston. “I think every district needs to look at what buildings and what roads and what other things are commemorated…and do what they need to do.”
In California, the only state to have an official holiday in Chavez’s name, lawmakers are considering stripping him of the honor.
Rep. Alexandra Macedo said her legislation would maintain the March 31 holiday but dissociate it from Chavez and instead honor the broader migrant farmworker movement.
“The fight for dignity in the fields has never been the business of just one person; it concerns the millions of workers who sweat, toil and aspire to a better life,” the lawmaker said in a statement Wednesday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has indicated he is willing to sign a bill to change the name.
“The farmworker movement has always been bigger than one man or one person. Given the horrific allegations that were made public for the first time yesterday, this is a welcome change,” he said Thursday.
In the District of Columbia, the Cesar Chavez Public Policy Charter School, which serves grades six through 12, called the revelations “deeply shocking and incredibly disappointing.”
“The Board of Trustees will seriously consider changing the name of Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for public policy and engage in discussions based on our values and commitment to students and families,” the school said.
It’s not as simple as just clicking Delete.
Parts of the country, particularly western areas with large Hispanic populations, have put Chavez’s name on roads, parks and buildings in recent decades and, in some cases, erected statues.
California State University, Fresno, also known as Fresno State, erected one of these statues in its Peace Garden in 1996. The monument sits alongside statues honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Jane Addams. She was shrouded in black Wednesday, and the Associated Press reported Thursday that the school now plans to remove the statue entirely.
It’s relatively easy to do.
When it comes to buildings and roads, policymakers need replacements that fit. As the recent battle over Confederate names shows, it is not always easy to agree on an alternative.
This is especially true for Chavez memorials. Officials have said they want to preserve the focus of the migrant farmworker movement even as they erase Chavez.
“I think when people were resisting Cesar Chavez before, what they were blocking was the movement of labor and farm workers across the country,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York. “I think it’s completely understandable that these marches are canceled and that people want to find a new way to honor the movement rather than just one person.”
Ms. Garcia said the street and school in her neighborhood, which are currently named after Chavez, could be renamed in honor of Dolores Huerta.
Ms. Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Chavez, popularized the movement’s chant “Si se puede.” It turns out she was also one of Chávez’s victims.
Ms. Huerta, 95, said this week that Chavez twice pressured her to have sex with him in the 1960s and got her pregnant each time. She said she placed the children with families and maintained a relationship with them.
“I kept this secret as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work,” she said in a statement. “Forming a union was the only way to realize and secure these rights, and I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way.”
The New York Times, which investigated Chavez’s sexual abuse allegations, spoke with one woman who said Chavez molested her when she was a teenager in the 1970s. Another said she was 12 when Chavez first groped her and 15 when he raped her. Chavez was in his forties at the time. He was 66 when he died in 1993.
The newspaper said the two women and Ms. Huerta were “part of a broader pattern of sexual misconduct.” Chavez used “many women who worked for him and volunteered in his movement for his own sexual gratification.”
Pressure to de-memorialize Chavez in communities has been widespread.
That will be a question for the Trump administration, which will have to decide what to do regarding the USNS Chavez and the national park site. Both were created by the Obama administration.
Neither the Navy nor the National Park Service responded to inquiries for this report.
Neither did the two Democratic congressmen, Mr. Liccardo and Representative Gilbert Cisneros, who led the letter to the Navy defending the name.
At the time, Mr. Liccardo called the possibility of a name change “performative politics” and praised Chavez as “a symbol of leadership and sacrifice.”
• Valerie Richardson contributed to this report.
