Colorado lawmakers advance move to rename César Chávez Day for farmworkers

Seth Klamann, The Denver Post on Mar 23, 2026

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DENVER — Colorado lawmakers are quickly advancing legislation to rename a March 31 state holiday for farmworkers and remove its association with labor leader César Chávez, who was accused last week of sexually abusing girls and women.

The House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee voted unanimously Monday afternoon to advance the bill. House Bill 1339 was introduced Friday, days after The New York Times published a bombshell multiyear investigation into Chávez that accused the late Mexican-American civil rights icon of sexually abusing and assaulting women involved in the agricultural labor movement.

His victims allegedly included underaged girls and his fellow organizer Dolores Huerta, who described Chávez’s abuse to the Times.

HB-1339 would change Colorado’s March 31 voluntary legal holiday — which falls on Chávez’s birthday — from César Chávez Day to “Farm Workers Day.”

“When we talk about removing a name from statute, we’re not just talking about policy. We are talking about history. We are talking about identity, and we are talking about people’s experiences,” said House Majoriy Leader Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat. “This conversation didn’t start here. It started with survivors. It started with members of our communities, who came forward with painful stories of sexual abuse and rape. And (they) asked something very simple of us: to listen, and to not look away.”

Duran is co-sponsoring the bill with Rep. Lorena Garcia and Sen. Jessie Danielson, both also Democrats.

Duran and Garcia said renaming the voluntary holiday — which doesn’t require state government offices to close — would emphasize the broader farm labor movement and the workers who filled its ranks, rather than the man who led it decades ago.

Garcia quoted a comment by one of Chávez’s victims to the Times: “The movement — that’s the hero.”

The bill passed the committee 11-0. It now heads to the full House for the first of two votes. Garcia says lawmakers intend to pass the bill before March 31 so that the new holiday can take effect.

If the Legislature works at its maximum speed, the bill could be passed by the end of this week.

The Times’ revelations about Chávez have prompted a wave of similarly swift recriminations nationwide. Lawmakers in California, where March 31 is also named for Chávez, have similarly discussed stripping him from the holiday. Annual marches in Chávez’s honor were canceled in Denver and in several other cities, and officials in multiple states said they would consider renaming the scores of streets and schools that bore his moniker, according to the Times.

Last week, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced that the city would change a full municipal holiday named for Chávez that’s set to be observed next Monday. The city also planned to strip his name from a city park.

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