Cesar Chavez Rape Allegations: West Hollywood Cancels Cesar Chavez Day Recognition. City Hall Still Closes

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the City of West Hollywood issued Thursday.

West Hollywood will not hold any recognition activities for Cesar Chavez Day this year. West Hollywood City Hall and certain City facilities will still close Monday, March 30. The closure is a discretionary municipal decision, not a state requirement, but the City confirmed Thursday it will not mark the occasion in his honor.

“There will be no recognition activities in West Hollywood this year,” a City spokesperson said.

The decision follows a New York Times investigation published Wednesday detailing documented evidence that Chavez sexually assaulted multiple women in the farmworker movement, including two young teenagers. The co-founder of the United Farm Workers, Dolores Huerta, confirmed in an interview with the Times that Chavez raped her in Delano in 1966 and manipulated her into sex during a 1960 work trip in San Juan Capistrano. She said both encounters produced children. She kept silent for decades because she believed speaking out would damage the movement.

“I saw him, again, as my boss, as my hero, as somebody that would do the impossible,” Huerta told the Times. “I never talked about it to anybody and the reason I didn’t is because I just didn’t want to hurt the movement.”

Huerta is 95. She is widely regarded as one of the most credible voices in the history of American labor rights.

In its statement, the City said the allegations are “very serious and deeply troubling” and that West Hollywood stands with survivors. The City also noted that any broader change to how it commemorates the farmworker movement will require a public council meeting with community input.

“The City will engage in a discussion at an upcoming City Council meeting regarding how it will commemorate the farmworker and labor rights movement moving forward,” the statement said.

The fallout nationally has been fast. The United Farm Workers announced it will not take part in events bearing Chavez’s name. A Fresno city councilmember said he plans to move to rename Cesar Chavez Boulevard. A San Francisco supervisor called for the removal of his name from a three-mile street through the Mission District. In Austin, the community group that led the original 1993 renaming effort is now pushing to undo it. California lawmakers have announced intent to rename the state holiday Farmworkers Day. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he was still “processing” the news and would not commit to changes.

West Hollywood has no street, park, or building named for Chavez. What it had was an observance. The City said it will monitor evolving discussions at the local and state levels as jurisdictions evaluate potential changes.

The City has navigated this kind of situation before. When the Trump administration’s direction on flag-lowering conflicted with what West Hollywood wanted, the council updated its flag policy through a public meeting after the fact. The spokesperson said the same process would apply here.

In February, Councilmembers John Erickson and Chelsea Byers held a press conference at West Hollywood Park calling on Casey Wasserman to resign as chair of the LA28 Olympic organizing committee over emails he exchanged with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003. Wasserman was never accused of any wrongdoing. On March 2, the full council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution calling for his removal. Erickson said anyone with ties to Maxwell and Epstein does not deserve a position of leadership. Byers said the City has consistently stood with survivors and demanded accountability from those who abuse power.

The two situations are not exact. But the principle the council applied in March — that association with sexual abuse requires public response — is the same principle cities across the country are now applying to Chavez. Several are moving to rename streets. Others have canceled Cesar Chavez Day events entirely. The organization Chavez co-founded has walked away from his name.

‘West Hollywood will lead the way,’ Erickson said in February. He said that about Wasserman. This time, it did.