Tarrant County may replace Cesar Chavez Day with Veterans Day on holiday calendar
Tarrant County commissioners will consider replacing Cesar Chavez Day with Veterans Day as a county holiday.
Days before Cesar Chavez Day was set to be celebrated across the country in March, a New York Times article exposed the lauded Latino labor activist for his alleged sexual abuse.
In reaction, some governmental bodies renamed March 31 as Farmworkers Day or replaced it with a celebratory day for his co-activist Dolores Huerta on April 10. After the news broke, Tarrant County scrapped Cesar Chavez’s name from the official county holiday and replaced it with a generic name that still allowed county employees to have the day off.
Cesar Chavez Day has been a paid holiday for county employees since 2001. An August 2024 commissioners court agenda initially included a proposition to swap out Veterans Day as an employee holiday instead, but the motion never made it to the court.
On Tuesday, Tarrant County commissioners will revisit the issue.
With the revised version, Veterans Day will be celebrated on Nov. 11 and Cesar Chavez Day will not. Tarrant County employees will still have 13 holidays.
How often the court will convene will also be under consideration. In August, the five-person court split along party lines to meet once a month instead of twice a month.
The commissioners court will discuss both potential changes on Tuesday at its monthly 10 a.m. meeting.