Murals painted in honor of labor rights leader Cesar Chavez and education buildings and parks named after him in Santa Ana are being covered up or renamed in the wake of bombshell allegations that the labor leader sexually assaulted two young girls decades ago.
Last week, the New York Times published a multi-year investigation that reported Chavez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, groomed and sexually abused women and girls in the labor movement for years and raped Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the union.
Now, elected officials across Santa Ana and Southern California are having a reckoning with the multiple monuments that bear his name and likeness roughly a week before Cesar Chavez Day – a commemorative holiday that state legislators are also quickly trying to rename.
Meanwhile, school board officials in both the Anaheim Union High School District and the Anaheim Elementary School District are expected to revisit separate resolutions approved in recognition of the holiday at future meetings.
Facing a “Hard Truth”
On Tuesday, Santa Ana Unified school board members took their first steps to start renaming César E. Chávez High School, directing staff to cover any signs or logos with his name and to form a committee to review the name of other schools as well.
Board President Katelyn Brazer Aceves said changing the school name was about standing with the women who have come forward and called on a review of other school names in the district that might be problematic.
“It’s very important that we take these reports seriously, and that we acknowledge that while this is such a hard truth, we need to have these hard conversations about the names of our buildings and our schools,” she said at the meeting.
“I would love to see us find a way to rename our school in a way that still can affirm the farm worker movement, the labor movement, women, Latina women, in these movements or other leaders as well.”
Board member Valerie Magdaleno echoed her comments and called on district staff to cover the name as the process plays out.
“As a young woman in public office, I can understand the pressure that can exist to remain silent or look the other way,” Magdaleno said Tuesday.
“But here in Santa Ana – a city rooted in justice, dignity and community – we are called to something greater. Living those values means facing difficulty and the truth with honesty and integrity and taking action when it matters most,” she said.
Board member Hector Bustos supported the name change and said any future name for the school should be representative of the local community and involve local input.
“We have amazing local history here in the city of people that have done so much work to uplift our local community and so I know that there are so many people that we can recognize and uplift,” he said at the meeting.
Ron Hacker, an associate superintendent, said the process to rename a school involves a formal request from the board or community members, an administrative legal review and then gathering input from students, parents, teachers and the community for a new name.
Fermin Leal, a spokesman for the district, said the process for renaming a school typically takes about a year.
“Obviously, we wouldn’t want to wait a year,” Leal said in a Monday phone interview.
“I don’t believe that our board or our superintendent want to wait that long, so I think they might be looking at options to kind of find a quicker solution that still involves gathering community input and ensuring that all community members have a voice.”
Leal said Chavez’s bio was removed from the school website and officials have directed district principals to focus Cesar Chavez Day this year more on celebrating the farm workers movement and labor rights as opposed to focusing it on a single person.
It’s not the first name change at a school in the district.
District officials renamed John C. Fremont Elementary to Guzman Elementary last year in honor of a Latino family in a federal school desegregation case after criticism that Freemont, a civil war general, massacred Native Americans during his expeditions through the west.
Hacker said that name change cost the district roughly $50,000.
Board member Brenda Lebsack said she understands covering Chavez’s name and that they could wait for the school to merge with another to phase out the name – a trend she said was playing out in the district.
“I would think that rather than just immediately jumping in to spending $50,000 or more maybe we could be patient and look at this, especially since you know there could be other things that come out in time and it’s just seems to be prudent,” she said
Last year, the district laid off 262 employees as officials grappled with declining enrollment and a over $150 million budget deficit.
[Read: Santa Ana School District Lays Off 262 Employees]
Covering Up Chavez
Santa Ana Unified school board members aren’t the only ones grappling with renaming buildings following the allegations against Chavez.
Ethereal Reyes, a spokeswoman for Santa Ana College, said in a Monday email the school has two murals of Chavez and one donated painting.
Reyes also said the business and computer center was named after Chavez in 1994 by the board of trustees.
She added the building name and murals were covered last Thursday.
On Monday night, Rancho Santiago Community College District trustees held a brief discussion without taking a formal vote on stripping Chavez’s name off a building at Santa Ana College and removing his likeness from a couple of murals on the same campus.
Trustee Zeke Hernandez called for removing Chavez’s name from the business and computer center, removing his resemblance from the murals and working with artist Emigdio Vasquez’s family to make the changes to the artwork.
“I personally, along with probably about 10 – 15 others – we took turns carrying his coffin in Delano for his funeral, and it impacts everyone who is supportive of the efforts and who still want to protect farm workers,” Hernandez said at Monday’s meeting.
Annebelle Nery, president of the Santa Ana College, said the school’s academic senate and other groups would meet Tuesday to make their own recommendations about the Chavez murals and the building name.
Trustee John Hanna called Chavez’s abuse reprehensible and said sometimes renowned historic leaders do horrific things that have to be called out.
“These are tough things when you have to – when you have to kind of put away the image of somebody who led the fight for social justice for so long. It aches my heart,” he said Monday.
“You have people who they’ve done great things in their community or their nation, but then they do some very terrible things, sometimes frequently, on a personal level and we as leaders, we have to kind of set examples and sometimes it’s not our enemies that we have to kind of slap down. Sometimes it’s our friends or the memory of our friends.”
Santa Ana Grapples With Landmarks of an Alleged Abuser
Meanwhile, Santa Ana City Council members are expected to take up a similar debate in a couple of weeks after two elected officials called for renaming Cesar Chavez Campesino Park and other landmarks named after Chavez in the city.
Mayor Valerie Amezcua said in a social media post last Wednesday that officials will debate stripping Chavez’s name from local landmarks at their city council meeting on April 7.
“The allegations of abuse against Cesar Chavez are deeply shocking and horrific. My first concern is for the survivors who have come forward and I commend their bravery. No individual, no matter how admired, is above accountability,” reads Amezcua’s March 18 Facebook post.
“We must ensure our public spaces and commemorations align core values.”
Amezcua did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Councilwoman Jessie Lopez, who is running for state assembly, called for a discussion on renaming Cesar Chavez Campesino Park in light of the allegations against the disgraced labor leader.
Lopez said abuse like the one perpetrated by Chavez needs to be confronted regardless of who is responsible for it and now is a time for elected officials to show true leadership.
“Our community is responding so quickly because people understand that we have a responsibility to believe people, to believe women when they speak up and to help create a system that will protect them instead of putting them in places that are just going to exploit them and ask them to shut up,” she said in a Monday phone interview.
Lopez said there is a mural of Chavez at Jerome Park that needs to be covered while other murals of Chavez in the city have already been covered and residents should decide what they want to name Cesar Chavez Campesino Park.
Lopez said the anger over powerful men abusing young girls goes beyond just Chavez.
“The bigger context here is that we believe that when powerful men abuse, the damage goes beyond individuals and corrodes trust in entire institutions. We hear that from our constituents who are so upset about the Epstein files and they want leadership,” she said in a Monday phone interview.
“We understand that if someone uses influence to intimidate, to manipulate or to prey on others that they are unfit to lead.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.