San Diego council renames Cesar Chavez Day to 'Farm Workers Day' and renames Cesar E. Chavez Parkway to Chicano Park Boulevard

San Diego City Council voted unanimously on April 21 to strip Cesar Chavez’s name from a city holiday and a downtown corridor and replace them with titles that city leaders and community members said center farm workers and local Chicano history.

The council adopted an ordinance to amend San Diego Municipal Code section 21.0104 to declare March 31 as Farm Workers Day rather than Cesar Chavez Day, and approved a separate ordinance to rename the 0.8-mile Cesar E. Chavez Parkway as Chicano Park Boulevard. The mayor’s office presented both items, saying the actions align local policy with recent state legislation and with community requests.

Lucero Maganda, deputy director of community engagement in the mayor’s office, told the council the requests followed recent investigative reporting and the state’s approval of Assembly Bill 2156 on March 26, 2026. Maganda said the city’s intent is to honor the farm-worker movement’s legacy while responding to survivors who came forward.

“While these actions are prompted by troubling allegations, the farmworker movement is bigger than any one person,” Maganda said in her presentation. She described outreach the mayor’s office conducted with community stakeholders, steering committees and neighborhood groups and noted that the Chicano Park steering committee and Barrio Logan Association had formally endorsed the street renaming.

Councilmember Moreno, who introduced the motion, framed the action as centering the community the movement served. “The movement belongs to the workers, to the families, and to the communities who carried it forward,” Moreno said, urging council to act swiftly to support survivors and honor the collective history.

Members of the Chicano Park steering committee and longtime neighbors spoke during public comment, urging the council to recognize local history and the park’s role in Barrio Logan. Several speakers described decades of on-the-ground organizing to found and preserve Chicano Park and asked the city to restore a name that reflects that legacy.

City staff said the ordinance will return for a second reading as required by council rules; signage changes will follow the second reading and a 30-day period, with staff estimating the earliest sign installations around mid‑June. The mayor’s office said it will publish bilingual guidance for residents and businesses to ease address‑change implications and will coordinate with Caltrans and other agencies for freeway signage later in the year.

The council vote was 9–0. The record shows the action is intended to align the city with the state change and to recognize farmworkers and the Chicano Park movement rather than a single individual’s name.

The council scheduled the technical ordinance adoption and second reading consistent with council procedures; staff will return with final implementing language and a timeline for sign replacement and interagency coordination.