Tim Vandenack covers immigration, multicultural issues and Northern Utah for KSL. He worked several years for the Standard-Examiner in Ogden and has lived and reported in Mexico, Chile and along the U.S.-Mexico border.
OGDEN — Jesse Garcia, one of the first Latino members of the Ogden City Council, was a key moving force in naming part of 30th Street in the city after Cesar Chavez, the labor leader and Latino rights activist.
"He did do a lot of things for the farm workers as far as the rights and stuff like that," said Garcia, who himself comes from a family of farm laborers. "That's why I did that with the street name."Now, revelations that Chavez allegedly sexually abused girls and women in the worker's rights movement he led have Garcia wondering. He's not turning his back on the man, not saying the honorary Cesar Chavez Street designation along 30th Street from Wall Avenue to Harrison Boulevard should be rescinded. Rather, he wants more information as the news, originally reported on Wednesday by the New York Times, is fresh."I wouldn't want to go ahead and just jump out and speculate until we find out the truth," he said. "Has it been proven? I don't know. If it is proven, then yeah, there's something wrong with that."The Salt Lake City Council issued a statement referencing the news about Chavez, who died in 1993, indicating the body is in wait-and-see mode about future possible action. A portion of 500 South in the city has the honorary Cesar Chavez Boulevard designation, though the statement didn't specifically state that the future of the name is in question.The council "recognizes the gravity of the concerns being raised. Any type of violence contradicts the values of our city, and we stand with survivors of sexual assault while respecting their voices," the statement reads. "We will continue to monitor developments and consider next steps as more information becomes available."While city officials aren't jumping into action, someone responded to the Salt Lake City Council message, posted to the body's Facebook account, with an idea. "I hope a next step may be to consider changing the name of the street to Dolores Huerta Boulevard," the poster wrote.Huerta helped Chavez lead his worker's rights movement, focused on Latino farm laborers, and simultaneous to the Times story on Wednesday, she revealed her own charges against the man. In a message on Medium, Huerta said she had once been "manipulated and pressured into having sex" with Chavez and, on another occasion, "forced, against my will" to have sex with him. Both encounters led to pregnancies.A portion of 2320 South in
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