Since 2016, a mural of Cesar Chavez by street artist-turned-political portraitist Shepard Fairey has overlooked the Proxy public space in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. The image of Chavez, an icon of the labor movement whose name adorns parks, streets, and plazas across the state, remained untouched in the past decade, even as the neighborhood (and the city) has grown swankier and more AI-friendly.
A bombshell New York Times article about highly credible allegations of Chavez’s prolonged serial abuse of women and young girls puts the future of that mural in doubt. Among the victims is Dolores Huerta, another leader of the United Farm Workers union, who came forward to say Chavez had raped her.
Even before the allegations were made public by the Times, United Farm Workers canceled its Cesar Chavez Day events. Across the state, city and university officials, including in San Francisco, grappled with removing statues and renaming streets, parks, and buildings that honored Chavez. Crucially, California state officials changed the name of the day commemorating him to Farmworkers’ Day.
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, whose district includes Hayes Valley, told Gazetteer SF in an email that they have spoken to the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and community members who reached out to express their concern about the mural. Mahmood has spoken with the owner of 453 Hayes St., the building on which the mural hangs, whom he said was receptive to revising the mural.
But there appears to be little in the way of tangible next steps.
“We are currently in conversations with the property owner, who is working with the artist to explore options to reimagine a more agreeable future for the mural,” Mahmood said in an emailed statement to Gazetteer. Mahmood did not respond to a follow-up question as to the identity of the property owner. Neither did Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association president Joe Maloney.
Fairey’s mural was put up in 2016 as part of an exhibit called American Civics, which also featured murals of Johnny Cash and activist Fannie Lee Chaney. It is based on a photo taken by the seminal San Francisco photographer Jim Marshall of Chavez after the UFW’s 300-mile march to Sacramento. At the time, Fairey told SFist that the mural honors “what Chavez stood for as an activist and civil rights leader.”
Representatives for Fairey did not respond to a request for comment from Gazetteer.
