The Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ annual Mass in honor of Cesar Chavez will not take place this year, amid new revelations of alleged sexual abuse by the late civil rights icon.
The Mass was cancelled by the Chavez family days before a March 18 New York Times report published evidence that the labor leader had groomed and sexually abused underage girls during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, when Chavez helped lead the farm worker rights movement in California.
“We agreed with the family’s decision,” the archdiocese said in a statement. “The recent news reports of the allegations are disturbing.”
Celebrated each year at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels around March 31, which since 2014 has been celebrated as a federal holiday in honor of Cesar Chavez, the Mass typically draws hundreds of farmworkers and labor activists to commemorate Chavez’s legacy.
The New York Times story reported that Chavez had sexually abused multiple girls under the age of 18, and had sexually assaulted UFW co-founder and longtime ally Dolores Huerta.
Public reaction to the revelations has been swift. Within 48 hours, murals and statues honoring the Chicano hero across California had been removed or covered, while state lawmakers had stripped Chavez’s name from the March 31 holiday, redesignating “Farmworkers Day.”
The city of Los Angeles also said it would rename its annual holiday on the last Monday of March to “Farm Workers Day” and would begin a process to rename signs, parks, and city property currently named after Chavez.
