After sex abuse claims, activists and lawmakers rethink Cesar Chavez Day

Farm work is personal for many people in the state of California, where nearly three-quarters of America's fruits and nuts are grown. That's why, when sexual abuse allegations against famed farmworker union activist Cesar Chavez came to light in March, it sent shockwaves throughout the state. "As the daughter and granddaughter of farmworkers, this is deeply personal," state senator Suzette Martinez Valladares said during a meeting to discuss removing Chavez's name from streets, parks and schools - as well as renaming Cesar Chavez Day to Farmworkers Day. "The legacy of farmworkers belongs to families like mine across California - not to any one individual," Valladares said, while she and other lawmakers shared stories of how their families worked in the fields picking crops under the hot sun. As a prominent labour organiser, Chavez helped lead a major strike against Delano grape growers in the 1960s, which sparked boycotts across the country, in order to gain better wages and conditions for workers. His mantra, "si, se puede" - which means "yes, we can" in Spanish - has been adopted by activists and politicians who came after him, and was even used by Barack Obama's presidential campaign during his first run for office. In 1994, Chavez was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton, and in 2014 President Barack Obama declared 31 March to be Cesar Chavez Day. But his legacy today has taken a sharp turn, after civil rights leader Dolores Huerta - who helped Chavez co-found the National Farm Workers Association - went public in the New York Times alleging he raped her decades ago. The newspaper's investigation also included testimony from two other women, who were the daughters of farmworkers, who said he molested them when they were underage in the 1970s. Huerta, 95, said she kept quiet about the sexual assault because she feared it would have hurt the farmworkers movement if she spoke up. Huerta is also a revered and beloved figure in the farmworkers movement with many schools and streets named in her honour - although not nearly as many as Cesar Chavez. In a sign of how deep the wounds are after these claims came to light, California lawmakers barely uttered his name when they voted unanimously last week to rename the state holiday "Farmworkers Day". Similar votes are happening across the United States, where Chavez's name is emblazoned on dozens of schools, streets and other public buildings nationwide. Chavez statues have already begun to be removed and murals vandalised. But those who once counted Chavez as a hero say they cannot let these revelations stop them from celebrating the accomplishments of the wider labour movement. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she was "devastated" by the allegations against Chavez and her memory of him was now "painful". But she recognised his importance as a figure in the movement. "It was because of people like Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King and other leaders that I made a commitment as a child that I wanted to spend my life fighting for justice," she said. In the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, artist MisterAlek transformed a Cesar Chavez mural he painted in 2021 and replaced it with a painting of Delores Huerta. "After learning about all the new allegations and all the new stuff that came out, I felt somewhat responsible of changing the mural because it's my art piece, right, I created it," MisterAlek told a local ABC News affiliate. The new mural of Huerta "illustrates the type of person that she was," he added. "It was someone that was at the rallies doing activism and speaking loud for people defending our rights." But some artists don't want to remove their memorials to the union leader completely. "I'd love to bring this mural into the 21st Century," said artist JD "Zender" Estrada. He painted a mural in 1994 in the Boyle Heights neighbourhood of Los Angeles, when the street was first named Cesar Chavez Avenue. It depicts Chavez carrying four farmworkers. Estrada disagrees with calls to completely remove Chavez from murals, and thinks they should be renovated and updated rather than "whitewashed". The muralist thinks Chavez can remain on murals but be less prominent as long as the community agrees. Zender also thinks the murals could better reflect the role of farmworkers from the Philippines and other countries in the labour movement. "I'm very sympathetic to the victims of what happened," Zender said. "But we have to preserve and conserve murals. They are important in Los Angeles." Zender said he was commissioned to paint the mural by the Chavez Foundation and by the City Council in an attempt to educate people in Los Angeles because so few of them at the time knew who Cesar Chavez was. There was a more famous boxer with same name, he recalls. "And this is Hollywood," Zender said. "We love an icon."