Three years after transitioning from an educational center to a full-fledged department, the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies has scored a victory with the university in its appeal to rename the department after labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.
Last week, Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams approved the renaming as the Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies.
However, for many within the department who pushed for the change, it is not so much a renaming as a reestablishment of an original name.
The Cesar E. Chavez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana and Chicano Studies was established in 1993. In 2004, when the center was departmentalized, it was renamed the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies ““ against the wishes of some faculty members within the department, who wanted to retain Chavez’s name.
Judith Baca, a Chicana and Chicano studies professor, said that departmentalizing led to the Chavez name being dropped primarily because no other UCLA department had ever been named after someone.
“At the time, there was no precedent (for naming the department after a person). Things have since changed,” said Professor Alicia Gaspar de Alba.
The fight for preserving Chavez’s name had been ongoing since the center began petitioning for departmentalization.
Gaspar de Alba said that faculty and students within the department had never stopped using Chavez in the name, despite UCLA’s denial of the name’s use.
“(We always called it that) because we named the original center for Chicano studies after Cesar Chavez to honor him as one of our heroes. It has always been referred to that way because that’s how we started,” Gaspar de Alba said.
Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams issued an official notification about the department’s name change last week, Gaspar de Alba said.
“We are pleased that UCLA’s first department naming is in honor of someone who did so much on behalf of others and was a pivotal figure in the history of California,” Abrams said in a statement.
For most in the department, the only change is finally receiving recognition for their request to honor Chavez.
“It might be perceived as a change, but it’s actually a retention of something that was done historically. We’re proud to carry his name and we believe it to be the right thing to do,” Baca said.
Matthew Alcala, a fourth-year psychology student pursuing a Chicana and Chicano Studies minor, felt that the change was made in the best interest of everyone involved.
“I think it’s an important statement because Chicano studies, like other programs, is about showing that people outside of academia make an important contribution to academia also. I think they had to change it,” Alcala said.
Chavez championed the rights of migrant workers in his lifetime of social activism. He was the national director of the Community Services Organization, cofounder of the National Farm Worker’s Association, and inspired the founding of multiple other organizations, including the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and the Texas Farm Workers Union.
“He actually understood and knew how to appeal to the Latino-Mexicano community workers and formulate an activist base,” Baca said.
Alcala agreed that Chavez is an iconic figure.
“Cesar Chavez is a Chicano hero and icon, and I think it’s only fitting that they would choose to name (the department) after him because he’s done so much for the Chicano community.”