Years after his death, revolutionary Cesar Chavez is still at the heart of controversy. This time, over a street sign
In San Antonio, Texas, city council members approved the renaming of a 5.4-mile street to “Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard” after the Mexican-American labor organizer, but the San Antonio Conservation Society has filed suit to stop the change.
Rollette Schreckenghost-Smith, president of the society, said, “We consider the name of a street historic.”
But Jaime Martinez, who has been advocating for the street rename for more than 10 years thinks the society’s reasoning is just a guise.
“If we had picked anyone other than Cesar Chavez, we would not have had a problem,” said Ramirez. “He was for labor. He was for civil rights. He was for human rights. He was for the poorest of the poor. He was like Martin Luther King, and some of them are very conservative.”
This is just the most recent battle of Chavez’s legacy, as while some look back on his work with admiration, others do not.
Chavez was the founder of the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, which would grow to become the United Farm Workers. His work shines a light on the struggle of agricultural laborers, and helped them get better pay and more safe work conditions.
As for this “struggle” in San Antonio, the city’s Attorney General Michael Bernard said, ““This seems to be a controversial subject. It seems to be an emotional subject. ... There’s a lot of efforts to turn public policy questions into legal questions. “From a legal point of view, I think the procedures were followed.”
