SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Typically, on this day, we’d be saying people are celebrating César Chávez Day.
But many have been reimagining, renaming, and pivoting on how to celebrate the day following the bombshell allegations of sexual abuse by the civil rights leader in the New York Times.
Just last week, state lawmakers passed, and Governor Newsom signed a bill formally changing the name of César Chávez Day to Farmworkers Day.
Similarly, San Diego County made the move to change the day's name following a vote by the Board of Supervisors. In the City of San Diego, an executive order from San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria was issued to remove Chavez's name from City property. It's also been reported that Gloria's office will work with the City Council to amend the city code to redesignate March 31 as "Farmworkers Day," replacing the current designation of "César Chávez Day."
As we’ve reported, César Chávez was accused of sexually abusing young women of the United Farm Workers movement and fellow civil rights leader Dolores Huerta during the 1970s.
ABC 10News spoke with a pair of local non-profits about how they are pivoting and/or reimagining, celebrating the work that was done for the farmworker community following these allegations.
The CEO of the Chicano Federation of San Diego County told ABC 10News it has been a hard couple of weeks as they’re still processing the accusations.
But, it is important to acknowledge there’s hurt by what’s been alleged, and the movement doesn’t belong to just one person. There are so many people who have fought for the rights of farmworkers.
“It was important to immediately take action. And so, we are calling it Farm Workers' Day off for our staff,” Liz Ramirez, CEO of the Chicano Federation, said. “We want input from all of our team, from our leadership, and so we, although we've made those slight changes, we are continuing the conversation; it doesn't stop there. Continuing the conversation to make sure that everybody is heard, that all the team has input, um, and also that we continue to do our work to really fight for safety for women and for children through the work that we do.”
The Chicano Federation will be having a day of service that will be held this Saturday.
ABC 10News also spoke with Diane Moss, who’s the CEO of Project New Village. It’s a non-profit focused on community-based urban agriculture.
We previously spoke with her organization when Chavez’s allegations first came to light, and the efforts to uplift the voices of activists like Dolores Huerta and others.
So, Moss told us they want to highlight others who may not have been previously recognized.
“It was not a hard pivot for us. It was a matter of changing documents. It's changing the names, changing the emphasis, but it's still looking at supporting those who came before us in the urban ag, our, our farm worker arena, because it lifts the work that we do and supports values that they should be treated better,” Moss said.
Project New Village will be hosting a celebration of the legacy of those who advocated for farm workers’ rights on Tuesday at 6 at the Mt. Hope Community Garden.
