San Francisco officials on Thursday unveiled the potential future names of Cesar Chavez Street, which could be on street signs along its 3.2-mile stretch as soon as this year.
They are: “Sí Se Puede,” the slogan of the United Farm Workers created by co-founder Dolores Huerta, and “Las Campesinas,” or female farmworkers, a reference to women leaders in the movement.
Mission Local reported in March that Cesar Chavez Street’s days were numbered, following the New York Times’ revelations that Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers leader, sexually abused underage girls and women for decades, including Huerta. Chavez died in 1993.
“Sí Se Puede” and “Las Campesinas” were presented to Mission District neighbors on Thursday evening at a community meeting at Leonard R. Flynn Elementary at 3125 Cesar Chavez St.
The renaming process was déjà vu for Susan Leal. In January 1995, Leal, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, and a San Francisco city supervisor, celebrated the renaming of Army Street to Cesar Chavez Street.
It was a gesture to honor farmworkers and to lift up Latino voices at a time when state voters overwhelmingly passed then-Gov. Pete Wilson’s Proposition 187, which banned undocumented immigrants from healthcare, schools and social services.
Opponents put a measure on the ballot in November 1995 (Proposition O) seeking to revert the name to Army Street. The measure eventually failed by nearly 10 points.
Thirty-one years later, in the aftermath of the Chavez allegations, Leal reached out to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office with a goal to, again, rename the street — and to honor the strength, fight and service of women in the farmwork industry.
“They were pretty receptive” to changing the street name, Leal said, recalling her conversation with Lurie’s office in March.
The mayor’s office, in collaboration with Leal and Assessor-Recorder Joaquin Torres, selected a working group of 27 people, including representatives from the the three supervisor districts through which Cesar Chavez Street runs, to brainstorm new names.
Other members of the group included Mario Paz, executive director of Good Samaritan Family Resource Center and member of the Immigrant Rights Commission; Jose Cisneros, the city’s treasurer; Susan Cervantes, muralist and founder and director of Precita Eyes Murals; Mike Casey, labor leader from local 2; John Trasviña, the president of the board of appeals and Ani Rivera, executive director of Galería de la Raza..
Following several meetings and a voting process, the group narrowed the possibilities down to two.
Both names, Torres said, seek to honor female farmworkers, the farmworker movement as a whole and the Latino community at a time of hostility from the federal government.
Anna Lisa Escobedo, a local artist and member of the working group, said that part of the group’s impetus was to honor Latinos “in the midst of the pressures and traumas” they are faced with today. Also a criteria: not renaming it after an individual.
The “Sí Se Puede” slogan holds great significance. It was coined in 1972 by Huerta while she, along Chavez and other activists, fought for improved conditions for farmworkers in California. Former President Barack Obama used its English translation, “Yes We Can,” in his successful presidential bid in 2008.
Lorena Opereza, professor of Chicanx and Latinx studies at U.C. Berkeley, said the phrase, as simple as it is, holds power because it successfully encapsulates the hope to achieve impossible dreams.
“What it’s telling people is not to give up hope, that, yeah, they have the power,” said Oropeza. “You’re not looking for someone to come on on a white horse to save you.” “You’re not looking for someone to come on on a white horse to save you.”
As for “Las Campesinas,” Leal said the name pays tribute to both women and farmworkers.
“There are not a lot of streets in San Francisco named for women, so it would be appropriate as well,” said Leal. “Hopefully, people later on in life would think, ‘Wait a minute, this was not only named for a movement,’ but also recognizing the very sad, very terrible experience of those girls and women.”
Renaming Cesar Chavez will need the approval of the Board of Supervisors. District 9. Supervisor Jackie Fielder plans to introduce legislation before the full board on Oct. 6 to do so.
The city’s school district did not reply to a request for comment on whether the agency was considering renaming Cesar Chavez Elementary in the Mission District.
San Francisco has changed street names in recent years, albeit far smaller streets.
Phelan Avenue became Frida Kahlo Way in 2018, a rebuke to notoriously racist former San Francisco mayor and California senator James Phelan (though that street was named after his father, also James Phelan). The city changed the name of Lech Walesa Way in 2014 to Dr. Tom Waddell Place after the former Polish Solidarity leader’s deeply homophobic rant (Waddell was the founder of the Gay Games).
The city in 2012 changed the name of the Excelsior District street to “Edinburgh” after it was revealed that, for years, the street was inexplicably called “Edinburg” — which is why locals pronounce it that way.
The former name of a changed street is usually left on signs in parentheses for five years or more after the change — Army Street, notably, is still on Chavez Street signs. Mission Local is informed that Chavez’s name, however, will not be on the street signs of his successor street.
Though there will be no more community meetings after tonight’s, the public will have a chance to provide feedback using this form and before supervisors once the renaming is introduced via legislation. “Sí Se Puede” and “Las Campesinas” are the two names the city has put forward.
San Franciscans can submit feedback on the renaming to the city using this link.
