‘He wasn’t a saint’: Cesar Chavez’s legacy met with reckoning by admirers in Texas
Cesar Chavez’s allegations of sexual abuse have led individuals and communities across the United States and Texas to distance themselves from the civil rights icon, but what he means to many and how to reckon with his legacy afterward is still on the minds of those whom he inspired.
Richard Gonzales said he wanted to write about the heroes in his community and speak truth to power. He saw both qualities in Chavez, the Mexican-American labor unionist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers. Chavez was assertive, yet never self-serving, and challenged the status quo that suppressed hundreds of Hispanic farm workers, he said.
Gonzales, a local historian and Star-Telegram weekly guest columnist, was involved in the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott by boycotting non-union grapes and serving as one of the founding members of the Cesar Chavez & Dolores Huerta Committee of Tarrant County, now known as ¡Sí Se Puede! Committee of Tarrant County.
When he learned about Chavez’s allegations, he felt a mix of anger, mourning and disbelief. A man he once revered for fighting for farmworkers’ rights would now see his legacy tarnished.
“We thought he was a saint, but he wasn’t a saint,” Gonzales said.
Efforts to remove his name were immediate after a New York Times investigation released on March 18 revealed that Chavez, who died in 1993, groomed and assaulted girls for years who were connected to the movement. Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union with Chavez, also revealed she was raped and impregnated twice by Chavez.
Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona, as a first-generation Mexican American. After leaving the Community Service Organization in 1962, Chavez and Huerta helped found the National Farm Workers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers.
United Farm Workers aims to empower migrant workers through nonviolent tactics to have livable wages and safe working conditions.
A strike by grape growers in Delano, California, that began in 1965 was a major victory. It lasted for five years, and workers endured a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to draw attention to their plight. By 1970, 26 grape-growing corporations had signed contracts with the United Farm Workers, resulting in better wages, improved working conditions, unemployment insurance, paid vacation days, and other benefits.
It led to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, the first law guaranteeing collective bargaining for farm workers.
A year after Chavez’s death, his contributions continued to be recognized when President Clinton posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
Chavez’s name appears on schools, streets, neighborhoods, buildings, universities and parks across the country. The day after the New York Times investigation was published, Fort Worth began removing street toppers honoring Chavez on 28th Street, which ran between North Main and Beach Street. The City Council voted at the March 31 city council meeting to rescind Chavez’s honorary designations.
The honorary naming followed years of advocacy by supporters seeking to rename a street in Chavez’s honor. The city chose 28th Street over another major avenue because of its prominence in a heavily Hispanic north Fort Worth.
Alberto Govea, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens chapter 4568, was one of the leaders who pushed for the street renaming. He did not comment when the Star-Telegram reached out, but he shared a letter he sent to Councilman Carlos Flores. In it, he and the chapter said the information about Chavez’s allegations was “distressing” and asked that the chapter be included in any future discussions regarding the signage bearing Chavez’s name.
“As the Council of record that championed the original recognition, we want to ensure that any actions taken are thoughtful, transparent, and not subject to misunderstanding or misinterpretation,” the letter said. “Our respect for Dolores Huerta and the work she did with the UFW remains strong. Especially because of the personal sacrifices she made to improve the lives of the farm workers that feed us every day.”
The Cesar Chavez & Dolores Huerta Committee of Tarrant County, which formed in 2016, changed its name to ¡Sí Se Puede! Committee of Tarrant County. Sí Se Puede is the iconic motto of the United Farm Workers of America, which was founded by both Chavez and Huerta.
In a statement, the committee said it will remove references to Chavez from its social media and materials going forward. It will support survivors and reject abusers in their movement. The new name will be temporary until the organization permanently rebrands itself.
Last year, the majority-women’s organization added Huerta’s name, now 95, to its own.
“For too long, women’s leadership in the farmworker and civil rights movements has been erased, minimized, or overlooked. Dolores Huerta is a visionary organizer in her own right, yet historically, her contributions often remain in the shadows. We now know she is also a survivor. We believe justice requires accountability — and representation.”
Lon Burnam, a former state legislator and former member of the committee, said he was in denial when he first heard the allegations. He had met Chavez on several visits to the DFW area and remembered how inspirational he was to everyone who witnessed his words and actions. But he was also stunned at the pace people were removing him from the public eye, unlike other white historical icons with troubling pasts.
Last Monday, the Texas Education Agency directed all school systems to “cancel or otherwise redirect events and activities tied to Chavez” and “eliminate, modify and otherwise alter any learning activities, individual lessons, and ancillary material” that reference Chavez. Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare said in a statement he aims to replace Cesar Chavez Day with Veterans Day in the 2027 calendar.
According to Burnam, President Donald Trump is praised by right-wing conservatives, even though he is a convicted felon, which is hypocritical.
“We’re going to banish Cesar Chavez from the public mind and not deal with Trump the same way,” Burnam said.
Rose Herrera, former vice president of the Fort Worth ISD school board, said when she was in high school, Hispanic people were ignored and, to some extent, devalued. There were no heroes to look up to during the Civil Rights Movement, except for Chavez and Huerta, who were not afraid to challenge power and authority, she said.
Herrera had family members who worked in fields and experienced the harsh conditions that the United Farm Workers were advocating against. She sympathizes with the women who have come forward and denounces the allegations against Chavez. But for her, she questions whether the story was politically motivated and why it took five years to be released.
She mentioned one of Trump’s campaign promises of an immigration crackdown, which he pursued by deploying the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in multiple states. That action has drawn criticism because of families being separated, and multiple Americans being mistreated and even dying when in contact with ICE agents, she said.
Trump is protected from the same accountability as Chavez because of his race, she says. Chavez’s allegations and the women he hurt should be taken seriously, but what he did for the movement can not be taken away, Herrera said.
“It should not be tarnished; it shouldn’t be erased,” Herrera said. “People need to learn from it.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 3:56 PM.
