Continuing the fallout from allegations that famed labor leader César Chávez sexually abused multiple women, including United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, the Los Angeles Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday to rename the upcoming Chávez holiday Farm Workers Day and begin a process to remove his name from campuses.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, meanwhile, will consider a pair similar motions Tuesday to rename the local Chávez holiday and develop a process to strip his name from buildings, parks and other county 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 César Chávez holiday Farm Workers Day.
The LAUSD resolution that was approved unanimously 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 César Chávez Learning Academies in San Fernando and César Chávez 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.”
Gonez thanked her board colleagues for supporting the resolution.
“You know, we bear responsibility in ensuring that we’re protecting the young people of our city, and I trust and believe in the work that we’re doing and making space for survivors on our sites, and providing those resources,” she said.
Meanwhile, County Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn introduced a motion calling for the county to rename the upcoming holiday, which is marked on Chávez’s birthday, March 31. The motion also calls on county leaders to remove “the name and likeness of César Chávez 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 Board of Supervisors will also consider a separate motion Tuesday 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 César Chávez, 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 Chávez 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 Chávez 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 Chávez, according to the Times. The story claims that Chávez 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 Chávez 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 Chávez — 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 César 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.”