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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — California lawmakers say they’ll move quickly to rename Cesar Chavez Day in the wake of accusations the nationally recognized farmworker advocate sexually abused multiple women and girls.
The claims sent shockwaves throughout the nation Wednesday, leading many to denounce the iconic former leader of the United Farm Workers union. Legislators and labor advocates hailed the advances farmworkers have made over the decades while vowing to listen to the people Chavez, now deceased, is accused of abusing.
On Thursday, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and state Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón announced legislation that will rename Cesar Chavez Day, observed on March 31 each year, to Farmworkers Day.
“California’s farmworker rights movement never has been about one individual,” the pair said in a joint statement. “To the survivors who have found the courage to come forward, uplifting the movement’s values of dignity and justice, and demanding accountability, our hearts are with you always.”
The speaker’s office said the bill would soon be introduced. Passage is expected next week.
March 26 is the Legislature’s last day before its spring recess.
Considered a leader and civil rights activist, Chavez rose to prominence in the 1960s as a worker advocate who used nonviolent methods to gain improvements for farmworkers. In 1962, he cofounded the United Farm Workers union with community organizer Dolores Huerta, who regularly appears on both floors of the Legislature for formal events.
On Wednesday, Huerta issued a statement saying she had two sexual encounters with Chavez in the 1960s.
“The first time I was manipulated and pressured into having sex with him, and I didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to,” Huerta said. “The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.”
Both encounters led to pregnancies and children whom Huerta said she arranged to have raised by other families.
Chavez is accused of abusing women and girls in a report by the New York Times.
Chavez, who died in 1993 at age 66, is honored in several states. He was awarded the presidential medal of freedom a year after his death. California observes Cesar Chavez Day as a state holiday.
On Wednesday, Assemblymember Alexandra Macedo, a Tulare Republican, said she’d introduce a bill to rename it Farmworker Day.
Macedo told Courthouse News on Thursday that she was overjoyed the speaker, Senate president pro tempore and Governor Gavin Newsom appear to agree on the issue.
“It has never been about one person,” she said. “It has always been about the movement.”
Newsom in a Thursday X post echoed the sentiment, saying the farmworker movement always was bigger than one person.
“Given the horrendous allegations that were made public for the first time yesterday, this is a welcomed change,” he said of the pending legislation.
Many others on both sides of the political aisle expressed support for the change.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said he appointed a subcommittee to guide the renaming of Cesar Chavez Plaza — a small park in the city’s downtown.
Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions and a former Democratic representative in the Assembly, posted on X Thursday that she focused on survivors of childhood sexual abuse and immigrant farmworkers when in political office.
“We need to continue to empower and protect both,” she said.
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