Continuing the fallout from allegations that famed labor leader Cesar Chavez sexually abused multiple women, including United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles Unified school board Tuesday will consider motions renaming the upcoming Chavez holiday to Farm Workers Day.
Both boards will also consider proposals to remove Chavez’s name from buildings, schools and other facilities.
The move to rename the upcoming holiday follows similar actions being taken by the state Legislature, and by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who signed an executive order last week renaming the city’s Cesar Chavez holiday Farm Workers Day.
County Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn introduced a motion calling for the county to rename the upcoming holiday, which is marked on Chavez’s birthday, March 31. The motion also calls on county leaders to remove “the name and likeness of Cesar Chavez from all county holiday-related events, communications and materials, and updating existing materials accordingly.” It says any events held in connection with the holiday should “proceed on themes of farm worker justice, labor rights and community service.”
The LAUSD resolution being considered by the Board of Education on Tuesday states that the district will commemorate March 31 as Farm Workers Day, “honoring the collective contributions of farm workers and their enduring impact on our communities, and ensure that future instructional calendars reflect anticipated changes in the state holiday, which could include both the name and designated day.”
The LAUSD resolution — introduced by board members Kelly Gonez and Rocio Rivas — also states that the district “with meaningful engagement with students, families, educators, and community members, shall immediately commence an expedited process to rename the Cesar Chavez Learning Academies in San Fernando and Cesar Chavez Elementary School in El Sereno, bringing proposed new names that reflect the District’s values of equity, justice, and community leadership to the board for approval by no later than Fall 2026.”
The county Board of Supervisors will also consider a separate motion calling on its CEO and attorney to “develop a community-driven process for the renaming of parks, streets, County facilities, real property, monuments, and other County programs that bear the name of Cesar Chavez, including the removal of related imagery in civic artworks and report back in writing in 21 days …”
The motion, brought by Solis and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, states that the county “is deeply shaken” by the abuse allegations, which were revealed in a report by The New York Times last week.
“These allegations are grave and painful, demanding a thorough, transparent, and trauma-informed response,” the motion states. “Survivors must be believed, supported, and treated with dignity, and they must never again feel that their voices are secondary to any movement or individual. The county also recognizes and uplifts the critical role of Dolores Huerta and the countless women whose leadership, vision, and resilience have shaped the labor movement and advanced justice for generations of workers. The farmworker movement is far greater than any one individual. It was built on the courage, sacrifices, and organizing of farmworkers, women leaders, and allies, whose collective efforts secured safer working conditions, fair wages, and dignity for countless families.”
The New York Times story quoted a woman who said Chavez took her into his office when he was 45 and she was 13, kissed her and pulled her pants down. She said dozens of sexual encounters followed over the next four years, though she says none involved intercourse.
Another woman said she was 12 when Chavez groped her breast, and 15 when he arranged to have her stay at a motel during a march through California and had sexual intercourse with her.
Both women were the daughters of organizers who had marched in rallies alongside Chavez, according to the Times. The story claims that Chavez used other women in the farm labor movement for “sexual gratification.”
Huerta, who will turn 96 on April 10, told the newspaper that Chávez drove her to a secluded grape field in Delano, California, in 1966 and raped her in the vehicle. She said she never reported the attack out of concerns for police hostility toward Chavez and the labor movement, and because she feared she wouldn’t be believed.
Huerta confirmed the account in a statement last week, saying she had two sexual encounters with Chavez — the first of which involved her being “manipulated and pressured into having sex with him” — and the other in which she “was forced against my will.”
“I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to ensure alone and in secret,” Huerta said. “Both sexual encounters with Cesar led to pregnancies. I chose to keep my pregnancies secret and, after the children were born, I arranged for them to be raised by other families that could give them stable lives.”