In Texas, César Chávez has long been remembered as a towering figure in the fight for farmworker rights, a labor leader whose organizing helped reshape working conditions for some of the country's most vulnerable workers, including thousands in the Lone Star State.
Now, that legacy is being fundamentally reexamined.
The shift follows reporting by The New York Times that outlined years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse tied to Chávez, including claims that he engaged in sexual misconduct with women and girls connected to the farmworker movement during the 1960s and 70s.
That reckoning is already having broad effects across Texas — and the response has been swift.
On Wednesday afternoon, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he directed state agency heads to stop observing César Chávez Day and plans to work with lawmakers to remove the March 31 holiday from state law during the next legislative session. In a social media post, Abbott also said the allegations "dismantle the myth" of Chávez as a figure worthy of official state recognition.
This came just hours after organizers in cities including Houston, San Antonio and Austin called off long-running César Chávez Day marches and events, many of which have drawn thousands of attendees in past years.
In South Texas, leaders with La Unión del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, said they wouldn't participate in any Chávez-related events this year, calling the allegations "shocking and disturbing."
In a statement, the organization, which represents more than 8,000 farmworkers in the Rio Grande Valley, called the allegations "indefensible" and said LUPE is working with other groups to create a confidential, independent process for people who say they were harmed to come forward and potentially seek accountability or reparations.
Meanwhile, the United Farm Workers Foundation says it has also canceled all César Chávez Day activities this month.
The fallout could extend beyond canceled events, with Texas advocates and officials saying the renewed scrutiny may prompt reconsideration of streets, schools and public landmarks named after Chávez. Dozens of such sites exist across the state, particularly in Latino-majority communities in the state's largest cities and the Rio Grande Valley.
A tainted legacy rooted in Texas labor struggles
Chávez, who died in 1993, is widely credited with helping transform labor conditions for farmworkers through strikes and boycotts in the 1960s and 1970s. While his organizing was centered in California, his influence extended deeply into Texas — particularly in the Rio Grande Valley.
Cynthia Orozco, national historian for the League of United Latin American Citizens, told The Texas Newsroom that Chávez's impact in Texas is undeniable, particularly following the creation of the Texas Farm Workers Union after a 1975 split with the United Farm Workers, the union Chávez co-founded with labor leader Dolores Huerta more than a decade earlier.
Under the newly created union, Texas farmworkers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley went on to lead their own organizing efforts, pushing for better wages and working conditions through campaigns that included a 1977 march from South Texas to the U.S. Capitol, aimed at drawing national attention to their cause.
Still, Orozco believes Chávez's role remains tied to a broader movement that extended beyond any one leader.
"It's often common for most of us to identify with a leader, or to know the name of a leader, but we do need to remember that it was a social movement," Orozco said. "A movement is not made by leaders. A movement is made by a body of workers."
The allegations now coming to light are tied to that era. As Chávez traveled nationally on behalf of farmworkers, the allegations suggest that, behind locked doors, he may have sexually abused women and girls connected to the movement in private settings like his California office and motels.
Among the most serious claims are allegations that Chávez abused two teenage girls — both daughters of longtime organizers who had marched alongside him, according to reporting from the NY Times. The women say the abuse occurred over several years, from about 1972 to 1977, when they were minors.
Huerta, Chávez's longtime colleague and co-founder of the United Farm Workers, also publicly accused Chávez of sexual abuse this week. She said he pressured her into one sexual encounter and forced another, and that both resulted in pregnancies she kept secret for decades out of concern it could harm the farmworker movement.
"It is not appropriate to continue to label César Chávez a hero," Orozco said. "We can say that he led a very important movement, along with Dolores Huerta, but if we had ever thought of him as a saint, we could now think of him also as a sinner."
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