#cesar-chavez

#cesar-chavez

In three and a half decades as a curator, Elizabeth Ferrer had never faced the need to remove an artwork from an opened exhibition. But a month after she inaugurated a major show of Chicano photography at The Cheech in California, which included a 1969 portrait of Cesar Chavez, horrific allegations of sexual assault against the labor leader hit the front pages of national newspapers. Today in Hyperallergic, Ferrer writes candidly about historical revision, a delicate curatorial calculus, and having to make "a decision I could live with."

A committee is being established to lead the process of renaming Cesar Chavez Street, 30 years after the name supplanted Army Street, and following the revelation that the workers' rights icon sexually assaulted women and girls. It took the state of California just a matter of days to rename Cesar Chavez Day, the state holiday that falls on March 31, as Farmworkers Day, following the bombshell March revelations from multiple women that Chavez had assaulted them in the 1970s.

The swift action came in the wake of allegations against the late labor leader of sexual abuse revealed in a New York Times investigative article last week, including allegations that he raped farmworkers' movement co-leader Dolores Huerta and sexually abused two minor girls.

César Chavez, who died in 1993, is honored and memorialized in public schools, street names, and buildings across California and the Bay Area.

Huerta's disclosed to the New York Times that fellow Chicano civil rights icon Cesar Chavez raped her during the 1960s. It was part of a story that also interviewed two women who claimed the United Farm Workers co-founder sexually abused them when they were young teens in the 1970s.

Be a part of the largest event honoring César Chávez in Northern California, honoring the life and work of labor and civil rights leader Cesar E. Chavez on Saturday, April 11, 2026. 2026 César Chávez Holiday Parade & Festival Saturday, April 11, 2026 - Festival (24th St. from Folsom to Bryant) - 11am to 6pm - Parade (Dolores Park at 19th Street) - Starts at 11am FREE