As cities across the nation reel from shocking sexual misconduct allegations surrounding the late civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, San Antonio is now among those considering changing a street named in his honor.
Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), a close ally of organized labor, is asking for “community listening sessions” to gather input on a potential renaming of West Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard to something that more closely “reflects our community’s values.”
“This is about listening to our community and ensuring their voices guide decisions that shape our public spaces,” Castillo said in a statement Wednesday.
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) filed a similar request that same day.
The council renamed the historic Durango Boulevard after Chávez in 2011.
In the wake of the recent accusations, Austin leaders are also calling for such changes surrounding their own East Cesar Chavez Street.
Castillo and McKee-Rodriguez also want San Antonio to consider the future of the city’s Cesar Chavez Day designation. The date, March 31, was made a federal commemorative holiday in 2014.
McKee-Rodriguez said he wants to explore renaming the city’s Cesar Chavez Day holiday “in a way that recognizes the significance of the broader labor and farmworker movement.”
The city announced Thursday that it would not observe the Cesar Chavez municipal holiday scheduled for March 31 this year — but would instead give employees the following Friday off.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the state of Texas will no longer observe Cesar Chavez Day, adding that the accusations against Chavez “rightfully dismantle the myth of this progressive hero.”
Alamo Colleges District said it will remain closed on March 31 as scheduled, but “in light of recent reports … we are shifting the focus of the day.”
Earlier this month, San Antonio preemptively cancelled its Cesar Chavez march before details of the accusations were made public.
Those now include shocking allegations from Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of United Farm Workers of America, who said she was “manipulated and pressured” into having sex with Chavez, resulting in two pregnancies.
“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 in a statement on Wednesday. “I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work.”
Huerta is one of several women who’ve come forward with their stories in a New York Times investigation, including at least one who was a minor at the time.
