Denver city leaders said Thursday that they would rename a fast-approaching holiday that honors civil rights leader César Chávez, a day after The New York Times published an investigation alleging that Chávez had sexually abused women and girls for years.
Mayor Mike Johnston stood in front of a tearful group of Latino and Chicano community leaders in the morning as he made the announcement.
“Our first commitment is to honor the courage of the women and girls who spoke up about the injustice that they suffered,” he said. “We also today commit to another truth: We will not let the sins of one man set back the commitment of a community who has fought for decades to deliver on the fundamental belief that everyone is entitled to justice.”
The city will also rename César Chávez Park, at West 41st Avenue and Tennyson Street in the Berkeley neighborhood, Johnston said. The city renamed the former Alcott Park after him in 2005 to honor Chávez’s influential work advocating for farmworkers and his role in founding the United Farm Workers union.
City Council President Amanda Sandoval, whose grandfather was a farmworker and a union leader, and whose father, Paul, was a prominent player in Denver politics, wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke at the news conference in front of the City and County Building downtown.
“For many of us, this is not just news. This touches our history, our identity and the stories we were raised on,” she said.
City officials covered signs and a bust of Chávez at the northwest Denver park, which is in Sandoval’s district, on Thursday morning. There were also signs of vandalism, with new graffiti covering Chávez’s name on a concrete wall.
By afternoon, city workers visited the park to remove the Chávez bust.
“We made the very difficult decision to remove the sign and the bust that I drove by my entire life, and (I) was so proud to have such a park in my council district,” she said, her voice slightly cracking with emotion. “Removal is not the end of the conversation. Itap actually just the beginning.”
The full city holiday, which the city has observed since 2002 on the final Monday of March, is set for March 30 this year. Johnston said city employees will still have the day off, but instead of calling it “César Chávez Day,” this year it will be “Sí, Se Puede Day,” in honor of the Spanish phrase and social-justice rallying cry meaning “Yes, we can.”
There will be a formal council process to rename the park and the holiday permanently.
The organizer of Denver’s annual march and celebration of Chávez decided Wednesday to cancel its April 11 event.
detailed allegations from two women who say Chávez sexually abused them for years when they were children. One of the girls was so traumatized that she attempted to end her life multiple times by the age of 15, the Times reported.
“The abuse allegations appear to be part of a larger pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Chavez, much of which has never been publicly revealed. The Times investigation found that Mr. Chavez also used many of the women who worked and volunteered in his movement for his own sexual gratification,” according to the article.
His most prominent female ally in the movement, Dolores Huerta, now 95, also told the Times he had sexually assaulted her. Some participants in the Denver news conference held signs with her name written on it Thursday.
Sandoval said there wasn’t a new name in mind yet for the park.
The U.S. General Services Administration operates a federal building named for Chávez on Speer Boulevard. Johnston said his team had not yet been in touch with the federal government about changing that name. A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who has a local office in that building, said Thursday morning that Bennet was looking into a name change and what that process would entail.
“We will not abandon the values of justice, equity and dignity,” Sandoval said. “We will lead with honesty, accountability and with our corazón — our heart.”
