Will Ceres Unified School District be renaming Cesar Chavez Junior High School as others are removing his name in light of Dolores Huerta’s revelation that the late farm labor union founder sexually assaulted and impregnated her twice?
The 95-year-old’s revelation on Instagram prompted swift calls to scrub Chavez’s name from schools, streets, buildings and parks statewide.
CUSD Superintendent Amy Peterman was asked the question and replied: “No decisions have been made at this time. We continue to monitor the situation closely and will determine any next steps as appropriate and in accordance with our Board Policy.”
Peterman said CUSD Board Policy allows for the renaming of existing schools or facilities “under extraordinary circumstances and after thorough study.” She said any potential renaming would “involve a careful review by the CUSD Board, with input from the community.”
It remains unknown if the School Board will take up the matter when it next meets on Thursday, April 16.
Some local residents on Facebook like Linda Schuckman-Yori were suggesting CUSD should rename the school. Others were not so quick.
Huerta said she came clean as the New York Times was investigating claims that Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas was sexually abused by Chavez when they were teenagers and union workers. Both told the Times that they remained silent for fear of “tarnishing the image of a man who has become the face of the Latino civil rights movement, his image on school murals and his birthday a state holiday in California.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, in his appearance at San Lorenzo High School, was asked about whether the state would rename the Cesar Chavez Day holiday.
“We’re just going to have to reflect on all of that and, you know, reflect on a farmworkers movement and a labor movement that was much bigger than one man and celebrate that,” said Newsom. “And that will be our focus as we process what the next steps are.”
Meanwhile, Republican Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo, introduced Assembly Bill 2407 on Wednesday to rename the holiday to Farmworker Day.
Ceres Mayor Javier Lopez said he was “blown away” by Huerta’s revelation and said he is “proud of Dolores Huerta, having a secret like that for many years and coming forward.”
Lopez said “when I get a chance, to talk to school board members and staff, see what their thoughts are.»
Huerta, who birthed 11 or 13 children from four different men in her life, publicly revealed that she was sexually abused by Chavez, which resulted in two of her children, a secret she kept for 60 years to protect the farmworker movement. She gave up the two children to adoptive families.
UFW labor union legend Dolores Huerta said that the revered UFW founder Chavez sexually abused her as a young woman and decided to speak out after two women told the New York Times that Chavez sexually abused them over a five-year period in the 1970s, beginning when they were 12 and 13.
When asked why she kept her secret so long, Huerta said she “believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”
On Instagram Huerta wrote: “As a young mother in the 1960s, I experienced two separate sexual encounters with Cesar. The first time I was manipulated and pressured into having sex with him, and I didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to. The second time I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.
“I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret. Both sexual encounters with Cesar led to pregnancies. I chose to keep my pregnancies secret and, after the children were born, I arranged for them to be raised by other families that could give them stable lives.”
In 2009 the CUSD Board of Trustees chose the name of Cesar Chavez for the new junior high school in east Ceres. It was a controversial choice given that CUSD’s policy called for the naming of schools after local figures who contributed to education in Ceres. That policy resulted in recent Ceres schools being named after Mae Hensley, Virginia Parks, Sam Vaughn, Joel Hidahl, Patricia Kay Beaver and Walt Hanline as well as the Berryhill, La Rosa and Sinclear families. The board, which had been populated by more Latino members then, however, went against their own policy, grating against those who were suggesting the names of community members Wayne Salter and Phil de la Porte.
