Cesar Chavez gained attention as a symbol of labor and civil rights. This has been called into question as he is suspected of sexually assaulting women and girls.
Activists call for Cesar Chavez Street to be renamed after assault allegations
Cesar Chavez gained attention as a symbol of labor and civil rights, but as sexual assault allegations come to light, many are questioning his accomplishments.
Dozens of streets, schools, and parks are named after him. In the three major states where it is a national holiday, nearby public libraries and state offices celebrate his birthday. The President of the United States awarded him the Medal of Freedom and a national monument in Keene, California.
Cesar Chavez, the late and respected leader of the United Farm Workers union, has been seen as a symbol of labor and civil rights for decades, and even more so after his death more than 30 years ago. He came to embody Mexican American and Latino identities.
But this week, Chavez has been in the spotlight for a series of damning allegations. His estate is being liquidated after several women, including union co-founder Dolores Huerta, accused him of sexually assaulting them, including some who were children at the time. Most continued to hide dark secrets. A New York Times investigation published March 18 found that some people were kicked out of the UFW ranks for speaking out.
Some labor advocates and scholars said the revelations could provide a much-needed opportunity to reconsider the importance of women workers and activists, rather than attributing the movement’s collective success to one man.
“The farmworker movement has always been larger and much more important than any individual person,” Huerta, now 95, said in a statement, detailing the sexual assault by Chavez that left her with two children she said she gave up for adoption as a result. “Cesar’s actions do not undermine the lasting improvements achieved for farmworkers through the support of thousands of people. We must continue to engage and support our communities, who need advocacy and action now more than ever.”
Chavez became the face of the national farm labor movement in the 1960s, demanding better wages and working conditions for farm workers and leading consumer boycotts of grapes and lettuce to gain influence among workers. The union today looks nothing like its heyday decades ago, when it won historic victories against abusive practices.
But its heyday also coincided with several alleged sexual assaults by Chavez, according to a Times report.
Calls for holidays and street names to be changed
The country is currently reconsidering signs honoring Chávez in light of allegations by Chávez advocates over the years of abuse within his ranks. The union he founded this week sought to distance itself from him, canceling an event to mark what would have been his 99th birthday on March 31.
The day is a public holiday in California, the state where many of the UFW’s historic victories took place, along with Minnesota and Washington. This is a federal commemorative holiday and a voluntary holiday for the Texas state government department.
While the union-aligned Democratic Party has led the way in supporting Chavez, Democratic elected officials, who tend to support women’s rights and strongly oppose sexual violence, were also among the first to cancel celebrations in his honor.
In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office announced that the state would not honor Chavez this year. Milwaukee City Councilwoman Jocasta Zamarripa announced the cancellation of the city’s annual gala.
In Los Angeles, a boulevard is named after him that runs through the historic heart of the Mexican-American community in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles. Elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools are named after him. At the University of California, Los Angeles, the Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies bears his name.
“I believe it is time for Los Angeles County to change the name of the March holiday to Farmworkers Day,” County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement.
The Democratic president has also praised Chavez. Bill Clinton awarded Chavez the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, a year after his death. In 2012, Barack Obama established the Cesar Chavez National Monument at UFW headquarters near Bakersfield, California, where the abuses are said to have taken place. That same year, President Obama awarded Huerta the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Joe Biden installed a bust of Chavez in the Oval Office upon his inauguration in 2021.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate, supported removing Chavez’s name from landmarks and institutions, according to press secretary Edgar Rodriguez. In 2025, Padilla introduced legislation to create Cesar E. Chavez National Park and Farmworker Movement National Park, which spans Arizona and California. Rodriguez said Padilla will instead work on renaming the Honoring Farm Workers Act.
“Facing painful truths and ensuring accountability is essential to honoring the very values that the large farm worker movement stands for: values rooted in dignity and justice for all people,” Padilla said in a statement.
What will happen to this legacy and how history will be reshaped by these allegations remains to be seen, but experts and labor leaders have noted that Chávez’s centralized power was built at the expense of women, immigrants, and others who have done so much for farmworkers across the country.
“It’s unfortunate that Cesar’s legacy rests on all the really important work that they did,” said Matt Garcia, a Dartmouth College professor who wrote “From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumphs, Tragedies, and the Farm Workers’ Movement,” a 2012 history that chronicles some of Chavez’s abuses as a leader. “But it is true that he almost single-handedly sunk what was an amazing movement for its time.”
Garcia said the unions encouraged Chavez’s unchecked power and failed to create democratic processes that could have protected those who opposed him.
In light of the allegations, the UFW and the Cesar Chavez Foundation said they are establishing a “safe and confidential process for those who wish to share their experiences of historical harm.” Garcia questioned how an organization that includes people who were with Chavez when the abuse occurred could collect and investigate incidents. Huerta’s statement directed people who may have been sexually assaulted to a list of non-union, state and nonprofit resources.
Even before the sexual abuse allegations emerged, some Latino and farmworker advocacy groups criticized Chavez’s anti-immigrant stance. He previously supported tough immigration enforcement against illegal immigrants, believing they were being used as strikebreakers to undermine American workers. Some conservative advocates for restricting immigration say the left should learn from his positions on immigration.
Currently, more than two-thirds of farm workers are immigrants, including an estimated 40% who are undocumented, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
UFW membership reached approximately 60,000 in the 1970s. We currently have less than 5,000 members. Less than 1% of farmworkers are unionized, compared to about 1 in 10 of all U.S. workers, according to data from the University of California, Davis.
But some of the movement’s victories remain intact. The Times reported that California vineyard workers who once earned $1.20 an hour (now less than $11 an hour) now earn between $17 and $25 an hour during peak season, including health benefits and overtime.
The movement in agricultural countries is beyond Chávez
California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat who represents the Salinas Valley in California’s agricultural region where the UFW launched strikes demanding better working and living conditions, attributed his political rise in part to his Mexican-American family’s ties to the UFW, including Mr. Chavez and Mr. Huerta, according to his official biography.
Rivas said in a March 18 statement that his top priority is to listen to survivors and their families “with humility and compassion.”
“The farm worker movement was never centered around one person. It is bigger than any one person, and its values of dignity and justice are more important now than ever,” Rivas said in a statement. “To those who have taken the courage to come forward, my heart is with you.”
Beyond Chavez, García said the movement’s successes, including the creation and implementation of boycotts and strikes and subsequent contract negotiations, were the work of a group, not just one person. That understanding may help further the advocacy for farm worker rights that continues today.
Contributor: Paris Barraza, USA TODAY Network. Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
