Pima Co. actions latest fallout in Chavez sex abuse allegations | Local News

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) – Pima County will no longer use Cesar Chavez’s name for a county holiday following sexual abuse allegations against the labor leader.

The change is part of a series of local actions taken after allegations surfaced in a New York Times article last week. The county is also working on a plan to remove Chavez’s name from signs and public art.

A recent New York Times report accused Chavez of sexually abusing girls and young women, including fellow labor leader Dolores Huerta. Community activist Raul Aguirre, who joined the labor movement as a volunteer at 19-years-old, said history is being “reframed.”

Aguirre stressed the need to support the people who built the labor movement and Chavez’s alleged victims. He described those behind the movement as “people that died in the fields, people who were beaten up in the cities for joining the boycott.”

The county’s actions against Chavez came one day after the City of Tucson removed a statue of Chavez earlier this week after it was vandalized.

Pima County’s District 5 Supervisor Andrés Cano put forth the item to rename the floating holiday, which 7,000 county workers can use, and to remove Chavez’s name from county assets such as public art and signs.

“We have to reframe the narrative, and we have to stay focused on seeing this as a collective movement. And we certainly are going to be paying close to how we will continue to honor all of the farm workers moving forward,” Cano told News 4 Tucson.

Aguirre remains confident the legacy of the social justice movement will continue.

“Thousands of people that impacted millions of people and also that it was an international attention paid to workers. That will never go away,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre said one reason legacy will continue is because of up and coming leaders in Tucson and Phoenix.