His impact is seen everywhere on South Cesar E. Chavez Drive. From the street signs and murals bearing his name to a life-sized statue in the parking lot of Nuevo Mercado El Rey — Cesar Chavez was revered by many on Milwaukee’s South Side.
That’s what made news of sexual abuse allegations so shocking. Many today see union activist and civil rights leader Chavez, who died in 1993, in a new light after a bombshell New York Times article published Wednesday — as a sexual predator.
The story detailed allegations of sexual abuse and grooming of women and girls as young as 12.
Reaction across Milwaukee has been swift.
The city’s Cesar Chavez Day celebrations were canceled.
And the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts shut down a student contest and event honoring him.
Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa and others have begun discussions about potentially renaming Cesar E. Chavez Drive, a stretch of South 16th Street from West Greenfield to West Pierce.
What the Chavez Drive business community is saying
Olivia Villarreal, the wife and business partner of El Rey co-founder Ernesto Villarreal, said she was devastated to see the news reports about Chavez.
“Makes me just cry hearing these developments,” she said.
Villarreal said her father came to the U.S. as a bracero, working the cotton fields in Texas and Alabama. Her husband’s dad came to California from Mexico to pick fruit. Both came to the country in the 1950s.
“They saw what the labor movement did and lived it,” she said.
The movement, which Chavez became the face of, impacted millions, she said.
She said the statue of Chavez that stands on the western edge of their parking lot in a small plaza, does not belong to El Rey, although the store has been maintaining it. It was commissioned by Journey House and paid for by donations.
Villarreal said her understanding is that members of the Cesar E. Chavez Business Improvement District will meet and decide the future of the statue and discuss the renaming of the street.
She said she’s open to the BID’s suggestion of taking down the statue and also changing the name of the street.
The Chavez Drive BID issued a statement calling for accountability and thoughtful action.
“Cesar E. Chavez has long been recognized as a symbol of labor rights, dignity and collective organizing for farmworkers and Latino communities,” it read. “At the same time, we recognize that history is not one-dimensional. It requires us to confront the full scope of a person’s legacy, including the parts that are in contradiction to what we have known.”
The BID board of directors is actively examining next steps, according to the statement.
‘Get rid of everything’
Elena Rosales, who works at Agencia de Viajes Mexico, 1016 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive, said she was shocked when she heard the news about Chavez.
“Get rid of everything, take the statue down, change the street,” she said.
As a woman, she said, she’s on the side of the victims. Still, she acknowledged, with Chavez long dead, we’ll never hear his side.
“He’s not here to defend himself,” Rosales said.
Maria Romo, a manager at Reliable Staffing Solutions, 1215 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive, said that although she thinks the voices of the victims should be heard, she doesn’t think changing the name of the street will help much.
“They’ve already been harmed. What will changing the name of the street do to change that?” she said.
‘Why now?’
Alma Flores, owner of Nuevo Imagen, a beauty shop at 1219 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive, said she doesn’t think that the street should be renamed or that Chavez’s legacy should be forgotten.
“He did so much for the agricultural workers,” she said. “What will they do, remove his name from everywhere? Because it’s all over.”
Flores said she questions some of the allegations against him and wonders why they took so long to become public.
“I don’t understand. Why now when everyone celebrates him,” she said.
Fernando Barajas, manager of Taqueria Los Comales, 1306 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive, said he has mixed feelings about the sexual abuse allegations against Chavez.
“He’s been dead for so long,” said Barajas, who’s worked at the restaurant for nearly 23 years. “We all have different points of view.”
Barajas, a former farmworker in California in the ’80s and ’90s, said that Chavez did a lot of good for people. Still, he said, he understands the severity of what he’s being accused of and understands if people want to take action as a result.
“If the people want the name of the street to change, that’s fine,” Barajas said.
What residents are saying
Juan Salazar, a former farmworker, also has mixed feelings about Chavez.
“That’s the first thing people go to nowadays, the worst parts, not the good parts,” said Salazar while walking along Cesar E. Chavez Drive on Thursday morning.
He admits the news about Chavez left him at a loss for words but wants more investigation into the allegations before changes are made.
Nyia Luna is a local artist who painted a mural of Dolores Huerta on Cesar E. Chavez Drive with her mentor Girl Mobb.
Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Chavez and went public Wednesday as one of his victims.
Luna said she painted a mural of Huerta because she knew of Huerta’s huge role in the farm workers movement.
“Not many of my counterparts in high school did,” she said.
She called the news about Chavez a tragedy, and said she’s glad that Huerta and the others were able to share their stories.
“Brings light to what goes on behind closed doors to a lot of women,” Luna said.
Many other residents who were asked about Chavez on Thursday said they had seen the headlines on social media about him but were not fully aware of the allegations or didn’t want to share their stories publicly.
What Milwaukee leaders are saying
County Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez, who represents the South Side, wrote on Facebook that he had no problem saying goodbye to Chavez’s legacy and condemning him for his actions.
“Too often, men of status abuse their power and use it for heinous acts towards women, and especially toward defenseless children,” he wrote.
He wants Cesar E. Chavez Drive to be renamed in honor of Huerta.
Zamarripa, who represents a section of the South Side, said she’s devastated about the news on Chavez.
“We know community leaders who marched with him, and the devastation is so real,” she said.
She issued a statement in solidarity with his alleged victims on Wednesday.
“These women carried enormous pain for decades because they feared that speaking the truth would cost the movement everything they had sacrificed to build. That is an impossible burden, and they should never have had to carry it,” she wrote.
Zamarripa said the legacy of the farmworker movement belongs to the people, while saying she will be part of a broader conversation about renaming the street that bears his name.
“I am committed to being part of that discussion in the coming weeks,” she said. “To any survivor who is carrying something heavy today: You are believed, and you are not alone.”
Zamarripa said she and other stakeholders, including representatives of the Cesar E. Chavez BID, will meet soon to discuss next steps.
“We want to get input from a wide cross-section of people,” she said. “But I am heartbroken.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
