Manteca Unified is escaping the rapidly spreading backlash involving alleged sexual abuse crimes by the late farm workers rights icon Cesar Chavez.

MUSD has no organized districtwide event celebrating Chavez.

A number of the state’s school districts aren’t as lucky. At many as 40 public school campuses are named after Chavez including Cesar Chavez High in the Stockton Unified School District.

Chavez received an honorary degree from California State University  Bakersfield in 2023, and the Cesar Chavez Foundation is housed on that campus. 

In a statement, the foundation said it was “deeply shocked and saddened by what we are hearing. The foundation is working with leaders in the Farmworker Movement to be responsive to these allegations, support the people who may have been harmed by his actions, and ensure we are united and guided by our commitment to justice and community empowerment.”

A spokesperson for CSU Bakersfield said the campus is processing the allegations and has no plan to modify building names or curriculum yet.  

The State of California gives state workers March 31, Chavez’s birthday, the day off as a paid holiday.
A number of schools and community colleges do, however, cancel classes on Chavez’s birthday.

Delta College in Stockon observes the holiday. Manteca Unified does not.

Chávez, a legendary California farm-labor activist and Mexican-American civil rights icon, has for decades been a figure intertwined with state and national Democratic politics. 

Former President Joe Biden had a bust of Chávez inside the White House. Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters a black-and-white photo of Chávez and his close ally Sen. Robert Kennedy is the first picture he sees in his house every morning. 

Chávez’s name is intertwined with day-to-day life. Dozens, if not hundreds, of public schools, boulevards, community centers and city plazas bear his name. He’s even part of California schools’ official curriculum.

Now, less than two weeks before California was to celebrate the state holiday honoring the late labor leader’s birthday, state and national Democrats are grappling with the shocking revelation that multiple women have come forward alleging that Chávez raped them. One of those women was his partner in the movement, Dolores Huerta.

The fallout from the revelations was immediate as Democratic politicians and labor activists scrambled to react to one of their heroes being forever tarnished.

“How many days I’ve marched, how many times I’ve been with students, talking about the movement, how many photographs I have in my house of Bobby Kennedy and César Chávez,” Newsom told reporters at a press conference. “It’s been hard to absorb this.”

His wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a sexual assault survivor and director of several films about gender equality, told reporters in tears that she was “shaking a little about Dolores and these young women.”

The United Farm Workers, the union that Chávez founded, called the accusations “indefensible” and cancelled its César Chávez Day events

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas,  like many California Democrats serving in the Legislature, has close ties to the labor movement and is a former union member. 

Rivas grew up in farmworker housing and has long made Chávez part of his political story. In 2024, he was honored at the César Chávez Foundation alongside Jane Fonda.

Rivas’ office didn’t respond to CalMatters when asked whether the Legislature will fast-track legislation to rename the state holiday in time for March 31. The Legislature made it an official holiday in 2000. To change the name, the Legislature would have to pass a bill that Newsom would have to sign into law. 

Newsom told reporters he was open to the idea, but leaders need some time to absorb the shock. 

In Sacramento, where César Chávez Plaza sits just a few blocks from the Capitol, city leaders also are taking steps to rename the landmark.

Mayor Kevin McCarty, a former Democratic lawmaker who says he participated in UFW and Chávez Day marches for 30 years, was convening a subcommittee to work on changing the name.

“We take these allegations seriously and will ensure the naming of our city facilities aligns with our values,” he said in a statement.