Chavez scandal revives opposition to renaming Boyle Heights street

Inside Jesse’s Barber Shop in Boyle Heights, Rodney Trammell gave an oral history of Brooklyn Avenue before it was renamed after civil rights leader Cesar E. Chavez.

- By Ruben Vives

The street, he recalled, was lined with Mexican and Jewish retail stores and bakeries. There was a movie theater and the original Canter’s Deli opened here. Different nationalities and ethnic groups lived and shopped side by side.

Brooklyn Avenue, he said, was Boyle Heights.

So when civic leaders sought to rename it in 1993, many in the community were opposed. They were longtime residents and merchants: Jews, Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

In the '90s, many opposed renaming Brooklyn Avenue after labor leader

The residents lost the battle but refused to accept it. They still refer to the street by its original name in conversations. Shopkeepers — new and old — bear the street name on their store fronts. Custom clothing designers and artists pay homage to it in hats, shirts and artwork.

"To me, it was always Brooklyn Avenue," Trammell said. "And it will always be Brooklyn Avenue."

Now amid talks of renaming the street in the wake of sex abuse allegations against the famed labor leader, the old debate has resurfaced, along with the conflicting emotions over it.

Chavez is accused of sexually assault-

ing two underage girls and raping labor leader Dolores Huerta in the 1960s and '70s, according to a New York Times investigation.

The accusations have created an outcry to erase Chavez’s name from schools, parks, streets, buildings and holidays.Concepcion “Connie” Sotelo, who along with her husband opened Los Cinco Puntos, a Mexican carniceria and grocery store, on the avenue in 1967, said she felt terrible to hear about the allegations.

She said people have made hurtful comments to her. “They say things like, ‘Now you have a Mexican Epstein,’” she said. “That hurts, you know.”

She couldn't help but think of the past when she and others protested that city and county officials were trying to rename Brooklyn Avenue.