Officials push to remove Cesar Chavez’s name from streets, parks and his holiday after abuse allegations

Allegations that Cesar Chavez sexually abused girls and women, including Dolores Huerta, has forced a reckoning about what to do with places and holidays bearing his name.

His name seems like it’s everywhere: Cesar Chavez Avenue cuts through downtown Los Angeles. Phoenix has Cesar Chavez Library, located in Cesar Chavez Park. Dozens of roads from Utah to Michigan bear his name, and some three dozen schools in California alone were named to honor his legacy as a labor movement trailblazer and civil rights icon.

That all may be changing soon.

Seismic allegations that Chavez sexually abused young girls and women, including fellow labor movement leader Dolores Huerta, have forced a reckoning among local officials and the public about what to do with a figure whose name has loomed so large for so long.

Huerta, 95, said in a statement Wednesday that Chavez, a co-founder of what became the United Farm Workers, coerced her into having sex with him once and, on another occasion, raped her. Huerta first revealed her claims of sexual assault to The New York Times, which published an investigation Wednesday of allegations by her and two other women, who said they were 12 and 13 when Chavez first molested them.

Amid the fallout from the allegations, members of the public quickly called on officials to rename locations that carry his moniker. Now, local officials in multiple states have begun the herculean work of changing the names of locations and holidays, as well as contemplating the fate of monuments and murals that honor Chavez. Some have proposed renaming streets after Huerta and others have suggested renaming March 31, which President Barack Obama in 2014 designated Cesar Chavez Day, as Farm Workers Day.