Tarrant County will no longer consider taking Cesar Chavez Day off holiday calendar

Tarrant County commissioners will no longer consider taking Cesar Chavez Day off its paid holiday calendar.

The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting initially included two options for commissioners: one that replaced Cesar Chavez Day with Veterans Day and the other kept the holiday schedule as is. By Monday afternoon, the agenda only included the approval of the holiday calendar as it is, but commissioners can propose changes to agenda items during meetings.

The meeting begins at 10 a.m. at the county administration building, 100 E. Weatherford St.

Last week activists sounded an alarm on the holiday potentially being removed from the calendar. Tarrant County has recognized Cesar Chavez Day since 2001.

On Monday, the Cesar Chavez Committee of Tarrant County and local LULAC councils held a press conference and protest outside of the county administration building attended by approximately a dozen people and members of the press.

Richard Gonzalez of Fort Worth recalled his conversation in 2000 with Tom Vandergriff, the Republican Tarrant County judge at the time, to get Cesar Chavez day as a paid holiday.

“I spoke to him at length about this. He had a very open mind. He was recognizing that the future was multicultural,” said Gonzalez, who writes a history column for the Star-Telegram. “He wanted to include as many people as possible of various backgrounds. He welcomed us with open arms, and he said, ‘Yes, please proceed in introducing this to the rest of the county commissioners.’”

Gonzalez said Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare has a history of going after Latinos, mentioning his time as a council member and mayor in Farmers Branch and his dispute with former elections administrator Heider Garcia . Garcia now works as Dallas County’s election administrator .

O’Hare drew national attention in 2006 as a Farmers Branch council member, when the city passed an ordinance that prohibited landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants and another that made English the city’s official language. They were ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a federal court and cost the city millions in legal fees. O’Hare did not respond to a request for comment.

Tarrant County has 13 paid holidays.

Gabe Rivas, the outreach director for Commissioner Alisa Simmons, told those at a LULAC breakfast on Aug. 10 that the county was planning the switch and Commissioner Manny Ramirez was leading the charge to scrap the holiday.

Ramirez said that was not true .

“This individual never once reached out to me or my office about Cesar Chavez Day or heard from anyone on staff that I had any interest in changing anything. Neither I, nor anyone in my office have expressed any desire to remove this holiday,” Ramirez said in an email obtained by the Star-Telegram.

Simmons said Rivas spoke out of turn and that her office would deal with the matter internally.

Karla Palomares of Fort Worth attended the protest and said she wanted to bring attention to the issue.

“I’m here today to call on the community to give their attention to the nonstop dishonesty and complete unwillingness for accountability being shown to us by our County Judge Tim O’hare and other members of Tarrant County Commissioners Court,” she said.

“Over the last few days, many members of community like myself became aware of the attempt to remove a non-working, paid holiday of Cesar Chavez Day for Tarrant County employees, behind closed doors and in silence, likely to avoid any repercussions for community,” Palomares said.

Palomares closed her speach out with chants of “Manny Ramirez es un vendido. Manny will gladly sell out Latinos.” and “Tim O’Hare es un vendido. Tim O’Hare will gladly sell out Latinos.”

“Un vendido” translates to sell out in English.

Chavez was born in Arizona, served two years in the Navy and in 1962 founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. He died in 1993 at 66. Cesar Chavez day has been recognized in Tarrant County since 2001.