SAN DIEGO (CNS) - San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria today signed an executive order directing city departments to immediately begin removing references to César Chávez from city facilities, programs and public assets in light of shocking allegations against the labor leader.
Additionally, 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.
"San Diego stands with survivors -- both those who have come forward and those who, for any reason, are unable to speak out," said Mayor Todd Gloria. "Their voices matter, and they deserve to be heard. We also recognize that the farmworker-rights and Chicano-rights movements were built by countless workers, organizers, and families whose contributions changed lives and strengthened communities. This executive order ensures that our city honors that collective legacy while aligning our public spaces with the values we uphold today."
Chávez allegedly sexually assaulted female followers as young as 12 in the 1970s, and raped United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, now 95, multiple times, according to an explosive New York Times investigation released this week.
An effort to rename César Chávez Parkway in Barrio Logan is underway and city staff "have been instructed to inventory all public-facing references to César Chávez -- including facilities, signage, programs, and digital content -- and to take appropriate action to remove or replace them, and report back in 30 days," a city statement reads.
Also on Friday, the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education announced it would "consider taking action" to begin a formal process to change the name of César Chávez Elementary School in Southcrest.
The San Diego Community College District, which has a César E. Chávez Campus in Barrio Logan, along César E. Chávez Parkway, said it is reviewing a potential renaming of the campus.
The story was published one day after the UFW and the César Chávez Foundation announced that they will abstain from honoring the late labor leader on this year's state holiday on March 31, citing "disturbing allegations."
The Times said its story was based on interviews with more than 60 people, including top Chávez aides at the time, his relatives and former members of the UFW.
The story quotes a woman who says 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 says 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."
The Times said accounts of alleged abuse of the two then-minors were independently verified through interviews with those they confided in decades ago and also in more recent years. Elements of their stories were also corroborated in documents, emails, itineraries and other writings from union organizers, supporters of Chávez and historians, the story says.
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.
"Unfortunately, he used some of his great leadership to abuse women and children -- it's really awful," Huerta told the Times.
The charges came as a shock to admirers of Chávez, long considered one of the leading American civil rights figures of the 20th century, and a Latino icon.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, called the allegations "heartbreaking" and "horrific."
"I stand with the survivors, commend them for their bravery in sharing their stories, and condemn the abhorrent actions they described," Padilla said in a statement. "The survivors deserve to be heard. They deserve to be supported. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. There must be zero tolerance for abuse, exploitation and the silencing of victims, no matter who is involved. Confronting painful truths and ensuring accountability is essential to honoring the very values the greater farm worker movement stands for -- values rooted in dignity and justice for all."
On Tuesday, the UFW and the César Chávez Foundation issued separate but related statements stating that they will not organize or participate in events celebrating César Chávez Day, which is typically observed on the same day as his birthday.
Chávez died in 1993 at age 66.
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