Activists fighting for labor and farmworker rights across the U.S. are grappling with recent allegation of sexual assault by César Chávez, the famed labor unionist and civil rights icon.

In Tucson, the revelations have led to swift action.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero renamed the city’s César Chávez Day, March 31, to Dolores Huerta Day this year, and city workers dismantled a statue of Chavez on March 23.

The local rights group Dolores Huerta March and Rally Holiday Coalition also renamed its annual rally on March 21 from César E. Chávez and Dolores Huerta Car Show to the Comunidad y Labor Unity Fair.

“It was about our community. It was about making sure they had a place for themselves, a space, a voice, a stage that people can have mic with to hear their stories and what their needs are,” said Eva Carrillo Dong, 69, a longtime organizer with the coalition.

Tucson coalition

The Dolores Huerta March and Rally Coalition started in Tucson more than 25 years ago, initially organized to make a dedicated holiday in Tucson honoring Chavez. 

It took more than a decade to persuade the Tucson City Council of the importance of recognizing labor unions, Carrillo Dong said.

“We focused on this because more people know that the farmworkers created a union, United Farm Workers, and we wanted to make sure that the working class people who were not always treated properly had their voices heard,” she said.

That effort was successful. In 2014, Tucson adopted the holiday, eventually followed by holidays in Pima County and throughout Arizona, she said. 

In March 2024, the coalition added labor and feminist activist Dolores Huerta, who worked closely with Chávez, to the holiday.

“That was relatively easy compared to everything else we’ve been fighting for and accomplishing and everyone was right away on board with adding her name,” Carrillo Dong said.

While Chávez’s legacy is now in question, the work continues, and the Tucsonans who have been active in the coalition for decades are still here, putting in the work for their community. 

Members of Tucson’s Dolores Huerta March and Rally Coalition

Eva Carrillo Dong

Carrillo Dong has been involved in the Dolores Huerta March and Rally Coalition for 25 years, supporting labor communities in Tucson and across the United States.

Despite the current controversy around Chávez, Carrillo Dong said she remains resilient.

“We can’t let them win. We need to keep uniting. We need to keep being on the street holding arms. We need to keep that fight,” she said. “La lucha sigue.”

She works year round with unions, employees and companies to get support for those in need, bringing labor issues to the forefront during the Comunidad y Labor Unity Fair, Carrillo Dong said.

Those efforts have included the fight to keep the Post Office Cherrybell Plant open in 2022 alongside the American Postal Workers Union, advocating for them on and off the stage, she said.

“That was supposed to close down years ago, and they were supposed to take that away. It’s still there,” she said.

She also served as a school board member in the Sunnyside School District for 24 years. 

“I saw some students having very difficult situations, and they are beautiful kids, beautiful minds, and yet we have a society that doesn’t do what we need to do to keep them safe,” she said.

Now retired outside of her work with the coalition, she also advises organizations called Jobs with Justice, Las Aguas and Liberty Partnership Kino neighborhood coalition and focuses on healthcare issues involving the elderly. 

“I think it’s important to me to be in a coalition because of all my different experiences with different organizations,” she said.

Being surrounded by positive and fun people keeps her motivated, she said.

“We’re excited when we have our wins, even while working towards them. And we’re excited even when we don’t win it right away and we still have to continue to push. But we’re doing it together,” she said.

She is also driven by her life experiences and the examples of her mother and late father.

Her mother, while not an activist, showed Carrillo Dong the power of watching out for others and helping those around her, she said. And her father, who served as an aircraft mechanic at Davis Monthan Airforce Base, was a union member. In his free time, he helped people fix their cars.

“My dad was always there for others, and they were always there for him,” she said.

That left a lifelong impact.

“I worked hard because I knew what community was, I worked hard to make my community,” Carrillo Dong said.

Ray Rico

“It’s about a movement, not about a man,” Ray Rico, 50, said of the coalition’s work. “It must continue.”

Rico, who owns El Ray and Media Promotions, has been in charge of the coalition’s car show for the past three years. 

A Chicano from Southern California who grew up in Tucson, he joined the coalition six years ago after meeting Carrillo Dong.  

She asked him to gather cars to present at a showcase for a drive-in theater downtown, where he spoke to the community about the car culture. 

Rico has been involved in the car club community in Tucson since he was 14 and learned the importance of family and culture, Rico said.

“I grew up in a neighborhood that had a car club that had some beautiful cars, and just hanging out with the older guys, they always spoke knowledge,” he said.

Carrillo Dong helped him see how that passion could serve the community, he said.

“The more I talked to Eva, she made it so inviting to be a part of the coalition and to stand up and try to make this a holiday, making sure our voices are heard,” Rico said.

After allegations involving César Chávez were published by the New York Times last month, the César Chávez National foundation asked all planned marches to stop, Rico said.

He cancelled the car show “in hopes that we will start again next year under a new name, but also I did not want anybody to be uncomfortable,” he said.

As a husband and father of young women, he said he stands behind Huerta and others who have come forward about their experiences.

“As much as it is about teaching our women to stand up, it’s also about teaching young men at home, teaching men ourselves that this is not okay,” he said.

Cecilia Valdez

Cecilia Valdez, 60, chair of Pima Area Labor Federation, has been a part of the coalition for 20 years. 

“My involvement has always been to participate in the unions and to get the unions to participate in the march and in the rally,” she said.

She said it was important for the Pima Area Labor Federation, an elected body focused on supporting working people in their work spaces, to join the coalition because the United Farm Workers have done significant work improving conditions and wages. 

“These places that don’t have unions always try to keep up with union wages and healthcare, because a lot of these corporations are fearful for their employees to want to have a union,” Valdez said.

She has been a delegate in the Pima Area Labor Federation for 27 years, defending workers rights in Arizona. 

“I’m a strong unionist, and I believe in helping the community because a strong community helps everyone,” she said.

A union member for almost 48 years, she has worked with the National Communication Workers of America and is chair of the defense fund oversight committee, overseeing strike funds. 

She said the legacy of the farmworkers movement lives on and that it’s not just about one person but about bringing the community together. 

“Its not all about that one man who took his power and used it, this is about the farmworkers and how they actually were given better wages,” she said.

Martha Reyes

Martha Reyes, 37, was recently named co-chair of Dolores Huerta March and Rally Coalition.

Initially involved with the nonprofit Arizona Jobs With Justice, she has been collaborating with the coalition for six years.

She helps set up zoom meetings, communicates with and contacts vendors for the rally and otherwise supports Carrillo Dong.

“I feel like this coalition is Eva,  and what she does is similar to what I do and want to keep doing – helping others, being there for the community and unifying unions,” Reyes said.

She said her work was inspired by her parents, who were a part of coalitions in Mexico and Tucson, bringing the community together and helping out.

“My parents used to take us to marches and rallies, and ever since we got to the U.S. that’s something we did every year,” she said.

Reyes added that her mother was involved in her church, where they provided resources to immigrants and unhoused people. 

Now, she’s passing those organizing skills down. Reyes’s daughter and niece have organized school walkouts in their middle school.

“I want them to be resilient and fight for what’s right,” she said.

She added that seeing young people using the stage to amplify their voices at the Comunidad y Labor Unity Fair made her proud, especially as a mother.

“The younger generation knows what’s happening, they know what’s going on and that’s something different from last year,” she said.

Reyez and the coalition is working to create a scholarship supported by proceeds from Rico’s car show.

“We are trying to do scholarships for high school students to go to either Pima Community College or the University of Arizona,” Reyes said.

They see it as another way to have an impact on the community. 

For more information on the coalition visit their Instagram page.

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.