Arizona Republican lawmakers plan to end Cesar Chavez Day

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(The Center Square) — The Republican majority in the Arizona Legislature is working on a bill to end Cesar Chavez Day following allegations of sexual abuse and rape by the late United Farm Workers cofounder.

Sen. Shawnna Bolick, R-Deer Valley, has proposed a strike-everything amendment to House Bill 2072. Such an amendment is a quick way to move legislation by replacing the entire content of an unrelated bill already proceeding through the Legislature. Rep. Lisa Fink, R-Glendale, the original sponsor of HB 2072, supports the amendment.

The Senate Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency Committee will discuss the amendment at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Bolick is the committee chair.

The action to end the holiday follows United Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta’s allegations this week that Chavez raped her, leading her to give birth to two children. There are also allegations that Chavez raped two young girls.

The accusations prompted UFW to cancel celebrations on Cesar Chavez Day, a state holiday on March 31 in Arizona, California and seven other states. The allegations have also prompted cities and school districts throughout the Southwest to discuss renaming streets and schools named after Chavez, as well as efforts to end or rename Cesar Chavez Day or anything else with Chavez’s name. Statues of Chavez have been covered up or removed.

For now, members of the Republican majority in the Arizona Senate and House are pushing to end the holiday.

“We cannot say we stand with victims and then maintain laws that send a conflicting message,” Bolick said in a statement Thursday. “This is about ensuring Arizona law reflects a clear commitment to protecting victims and upholding accountability.”

Senate President Warren Petersen said he was shocked when he heard the allegations against Chavez.

“The amount of abuse, sexual assault, rape, everything involved, is a horrific, heinous crime,” Petersen, R-Gilbert, told The Center Square during a phone interview Friday afternoon.

“Crimes against children are the most heinous,” Petersen said.

He noted he has been encouraged by bipartisan support for removing Chavez’s name from anything that honors him.

“The Republicans are leading the way on this, but I think Democrats will be on board with this," Petersen said about the bill ending the holiday.

“People are moving quickly to make sure his legacy is not preserved,” he said. “A person who has committed such a heinous act should not be honored in any way. This is an evil man. There’s no way our state should have a state holiday for a man who raped these women.”

The Senate president said it normally takes 17 days to pass a law, but efforts are being made to repeal Cesar Chavez Day before March 31, which is less than two weeks away. He added he expects Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who has already canceled plans to honor Cesar Chavez on March 31, to sign the bill.

Instead of canceling the holiday altogether, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday announced the city’s plans to rename Cesar Chavez Day as Farm Workers Day. The Center Square asked Petersen why Arizona legislators wouldn’t do that.

“It’s an interesting question,” Petersen said. “We have Labor Day.”

He said there hasn’t been a push among legislators to rename the holiday, but compared efforts to remove Chavez’s name to a brush fire.

“I’m seeing efforts at all levels of government to scrub his name,” Petersen said, adding that no state parks are named after Chavez.

House Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Surprise, said the state can’t honor Chavez following the allegations.

“We are not going to keep honoring a man who committed sexual abuse against children and assaulted women,” Montenegro said in a statement Thursday. “If even the Governor is stepping back from recognizing Cesar Chavez this year, then the Legislature needs to finish the job. Looking the other way is not leadership.”

But Pedro Hernandez, the California state program director for GreenLatinos, said he would prefer government entities rename Cesar Chavez Day rather than end the holiday altogether.

“I hope this can be an opportunity to highlight all of the farm workers movement,” the Fresno resident told The Center Square during a phone interview Friday afternoon. 

“There were thousands of other people who were doing this same work and were committed to the same vision for the people who keep America fed and sacrificed their bodies and so much,” he said, referring to the hard physical labor of farming.

Hernandez, whose organization is a Latino-led environmental nonprofit, said he doesn’t see the distancing from Chavez’s name as a setback for workers.

“I think the Latino civil rights and farm workers movement is in a different place than it was in the 1960s,” Hernandez said. “The rapid nature of how the Latino community has reacted to this is a sign that we are still very strong and open to accepting these truths in recognition that people were hurt. We need to uplift them as best as we can.”

He added efforts to rename everything associated with Chavez won’t happen overnight. Cities and school districts can move quickly to remove Chavez’s name, but it will take more time to rename, for example, the Cesar Chavez National Monument, a 116-acre park in Southern California’s inland Kern County, Hernandez said.

Meanwhile, more progress is needed to help Latino workers, who experience a high level of heat-related mortalities in farming, construction and landscaping, said Hernandez, who lives in California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley.

“I hope as we are in the 250th anniversary of the United States, this can be a broader opportunity to remember our nation’s history and move forward,” Hernandez told The Center Square.