Arizona repeals Cesar Chavez Day amid rape accusations

PHOENIX (CN) — Arizona will no longer celebrate the birthday of late civil rights leader and labor activist Cesar Chavez.

The day after his birthday, March 31, came and went without fanfare, as Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs signed a bill to repeal the ceremonial holiday from the state register in light of recent accusations of sexual assault and rape.

“Like so many others, I’m deeply troubled by the recent revelations about César Chávez,” Hobbs said in a Wednesday press release. “While I know signing this bill won’t erase the pain, my thoughts are with the victims and everyone affected. I’m working with community leaders to find meaningful ways to honor and celebrate our farmworker community and their continued contributions to the state of Arizona.”

Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with Chavez, revealed on March 18 that he raped her twice, both times conceiving children. Huerta said she was forced to hide those children from the public to not tarnish the legacy of the union she dedicated her life to. The same day, the New York Times published an investigation documenting regular sexual abuse Chavez perpetrated against two underage girls from 1972 to 1977.

On March 19, Republican state Senator Shawna Bolick of Phoenix introduced a strike-everything amendment to previously unrelated House Bill 2072 to repeal the holiday.

“As someone who has worked to strengthen protections for victims and vulnerable populations, I take this seriously,” Bolick said in a press release. “We have to be consistent. We cannot say we stand with victims and then maintain laws that send a conflicting message."

Bolick declined to comment further after Hobbs signed the legislation.

The amended bill passed through the Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency Committee with flying colors, and later received near unanimous support on the Senate floor.

One state senator, Sally Ann Gonzales, a Democrat from Tucson who voted against the bill, called it disrespectful to remove a holiday that people worked so hard to be recognized for.

“I was that kid working in the fields, leaving the house when it was dark and coming home when it was dark,” she said in an interview. “I was there when pesticides were being sprayed on the crops and we were in the fields. Many people, including my family, sacrifice our health for this.”

While she agrees that the state should no longer honor Chavez, Gonzales said she wishes to still honor the farmworkers who organized and made Chavez’s vision possible. She and Democratic state Senator Catherine Miranda introduced an additional amendment that would rename the holiday to Farmworkers Day, following the lead of the city of Phoenix and the state of California.

That amendment failed, but the underlying action to repeal the holiday succeeded.

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Thursday, Gonzales put on her mother’s cotton-picking gloves, explaining how she and her family benefited from the movement that United Farm Workers started.

“My mom was a very hardworking woman. A very loving woman,” Gonzales told Courthouse News. “I know she was standing right there supporting me. I put on the gloves to demonstrate to my colleagues what they were doing and what the holiday meant to me and my family.”

On Monday, the House voted 48-9 to approve the repeal.

Those who voted against it, all Democrats, stood alongside Gonzales and demanded that the state not allow Chavez’s individual actions to diminish the legacy of a movement larger than him.

Gonzales wrote a letter to Hobbs requesting that she veto the bill. Hobbs didn’t respond to the letter, Gonzales said, but signaled in her statement that she still supports what Chavez and United Farm Workers stood for.

“I am incredibly grateful for our hardworking farmworkers,” Hobbs said in the press release. “Their resilience is evident in the lettuce fields of Yuma and the orange-picking farms of Mesa. Arizona’s farmworkers are the backbone of our state’s economy. I remain committed to supporting them and ensuring their contributions are recognized with dignity and respect."

Gonzales said she’d be open to establishing a new holiday honoring farmworkers on a different day to further disassociate it from Chavez, but said racial attitudes in the Legislature and in Arizona would make it more difficult the second time around.

“That’s why it took 20 years to institute this holiday,” she said. “My colleagues don’t want to honor anybody who looks like me. We are dealing with racism in the state. I have witnessed it myself.

“I will continue to fight as long as the people send me back to the Legislature, but it might take another 20 years to come back with a new holiday,” she said.

Founded in 1962, United Farm Workers organized a series of marches, national strikes and fasts to earn higher wages and improved working conditions for laborers across the Southwest.

From 1966 to 1970, the union carried out a successful international consumer boycott on grapes by picketing outside of grocery stores across the U.S. and Canada. It held boycotts and strikes against lettuce and strawberry growers in the following years. Huerta is credited by the National Library of Congress with negotiating thousands of labor contracts providing farmworkers with improved wages and working conditions.

There are more than a dozen public parks, buildings, streets and schools named for Cesar Chavez across Arizona, including at least seven in Phoenix. Already, Phoenix has removed Chavez’s name from its downtown plaza outside the city council building and has begun the process of removing his name from street signs and other parks.

The Phoenix Union High School District says it will spend $2.3 million to change the name of Cesar Chavez High School — the endeavor will include changing the language of signage, uniforms, gym floors and more.

Cesar Chavez Day is still currently a federal commemorative, non-paid holiday.

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