California renames Cesar Chavez Day after rape allegations

(The Center Square) – The California Senate unanimously passed a bill on Thursday that renames Cesar Chavez Day “Farmworkers Day.” The vote follows the Assembly’s unanimous passage of the same bill on Monday. The legislation now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom to be signed. The Legislature moved to rename the day, originally in honor of late farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, after a New York Times investigation published this month found that there were multiple allegations of sexual abuse and assault by Chavez against women and girls for years. Chavez, who was president of United Farm Workers, died in 1993. “For generations, farmworkers have labored under a relentless sun,” Sen. Maria Durazo, D-Los Angeles, said on the Senate floor on Thursday. “They built one of the most consequential labor movements in all of American history, not because of any one person, but because of their collective strength, their sacrifice and their re