Las Cruces board avoids rush on changing school's name

LAS CRUCES — A majority of school board members leaned toward removing César Chávez’s name from a Las Cruces elementary school Tuesday night, but they will not take action before April, and one board member cautioned against moving too quickly.

The Las Cruces Public Schools board met for the first time since a bombshell New York Times report published last week aired allegations that the venerated civil rights leader and labor organizer had sexually and emotionally abused, harassed and raped numerous women and girls decades ago.

Dolores Huerta of New Mexico, a co-founder with Chávez of what would become the United Farmworkers, revealed two coercive sexual encounters with Chavez that resulted in children.

Chávez, a figure portrayed in monuments and whose name adorns streets, schools and other institutions nationwide, died in 1993.

Some municipalities, including Albuquerque, proceeded swiftly with plans to remove Chávez’s name from public facilities. The abrupt shift in recognition is particularly potent for schools given that Chávez’s purported victims include children.

Hanging over that discussion in Las Cruces was the process of renaming Oñate High School to Organ Mountain High in 2020, a decision received with mixed feelings in the community. The board at that time split over a vote to remove the name of conquistador and colonizer Juan de Oñate y Salazar from the school and select a new name with community input.

Board President Pamela Cort said Tuesday she had not immediately heard calls from the community to change the name of César Chávez Elementary School.

One community member advised against altering the name during public comments. Melinda Sanchez said, “History isn’t something we can rewrite or delete. It is something we must learn from. … César Chávez represents a history of labor rights and advocacy that has done immense good.”

Later in the discussion, Cort said, “The fact that we’re having this conversation now does not minimize in any way all of the work and sacrifices of everyone that was involved in the United Farm Workers movement. We are not trying to diminish that in any way, shape or form.”

Renaming an LCPS school involves two processes, according to staff members who reviewed district policies on naming or renaming schools. First, the board may vote to remove a school’s name. At that point, the district policy on naming schools applies, with a process requiring community participation in the selection of a new name.

Board member Teresa Tenorio recalled the 2020 process of rebranding Oñate as “rushed” and said she abstained from a vote to remove his name because the board had not been provided with cost estimates for rebranding the school, yet refused to delay action. “I felt that I was being pressured,” Tenorio said. “I don’t like to vote on things blindly.”

Superintendent Ignacio Ruiz said a preliminary analysis estimated the cost of rebranding the elementary school at between $12,000 and $15,000.

Three board members — Patrick Nolan, Ed Frank and Bob Wofford — favored removing Chávez’s name, but the issue was on Tuesday’s agenda for discussion only.

Wofford, a retired educator, said he had regarded Chávez as a personal hero and felt the school had been “rightly named” in his honor “before we knew what we know now.”

It was not immediately clear whether a vote would be set for the board’s next meeting on April 21. But Wofford said even if the school bears a new name in the future, Chávez’s contributions would not be wiped from the record.

“We are not erasing history,” he said. “We need to teach César Chávez warts and all now; but we should not commemorate this leader with a school named after him.”

Algernon D’Ammassa is the Journal’s southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.