What’s in a name? A lot, and it’s not always clear cut.

Sara Rubin here, with names on my mind. We live in a world of geographic features and places named largely by the Western people who allegedly “discovered” them. Even for simply descriptive names—of places like “Salinas,” for salt marsh—this comes with the legacy of the language of whoever bestowed the name, and whoever held power at the time a name stuck. 

Some major features—like Monterey County’s tallest peak—are in the midst of a cultural shift in renaming. While you still see Peak Junipero Serra on maps, I increasingly hear people refer to it by its Salinan name, Pinkolam. (A note that yes, the name Salinan corresponds to the Salinas River, both as so named by Spanish settlers.) 

But my attention this week is turned toward a more contemporary decision: To name places all over California after Cesar Chavez, the iconic United Farm Workers leader. The more recent flurry of activity has been to undo those names, in the wake of horrific revelations about Chavez’s alleged history of sexual assault, which was kept secret through his lifetime. 

Shortly after that news broke in the New York Times in March, I wrote about the problem of lionizing our leaders, of flattening them into sanitized, one-dimensional caricatures of heroes. 

In the months since, leaders in Alisal Union School District and in the City of Salinas initiated processes to rethink institutions that are named after Chavez. Salinas Valley Now Staff Writer Royvi Hernandez has been covering both efforts. (AUSD’s relies on a 16-member committee, which has proven to be a high bar. The last two meetings Hernandez tried to cover were canceled due to lack of a quorum.)

In both jurisdictions, a process of gathering public input is preceding any decisions—an approach I think is a smart one. That’s because, as I learned from reading Hernandez’s account this week of the City of Salinas’ process, we can just as easily move reflexively in the opposite direction of flattening people into villains. 

The community room at Cesar Chavez Library (still of that name today) was packed with more than two dozen people on Wednesday night, Hernandez reports. And every person who spoke advocated for keeping the name—Chavez still achieved heroic, liberating feats of empowerment for marginalized people, even if he allegedly victimized women who trusted him. 

That both things can be true, that he was both a hero and a villain, is perhaps an uncomfortable truth. But it is the truth. 

Whether that means public institutions like schools, parks and libraries should bear his name—or anyone’s name, for that matter, since most of us are flawed—is a different question. I’m glad city officials are taking it slow, not just leaping to a conclusion and replacing it. As Hernandez reports, they are relying on public input before deciding how to proceed. 

Beyond the Oct. 21 meeting, an online survey is still live until 6pm on Saturday, Oct. 31. I hope you will join the discussion.