I listened to Jose Romero of the Chávez committee on KBOO this morning. Hosts Dave Mazza and Jo Ann Bowman were clearly in favor of the rename, as were most of the callers. One caller did question the change, pointing out that Interstate and Union have their own identity. Bowman wasn’t buying it: “Just because when you show up it’s Union Avenue, means when you die it has to be Union Avenue,” she said. “Any street should be open for the community to decide they want to make a change.”

One thing I learned while listening this morning: The Chávez committee has a website! The site has info on Chávez, a link to the petition in favor of the rename (which now has 361 signatures), and a place to comment on the proposal. (I’m going to ignore the part where it calls on supporters to “contact your county commissioner.”)

Other news: Rick Seifert, a community activist and writer in SW Portland, has a suggestion to rename streets for “Justice, Dignity, Freedom and Peace” instead of leaders’ names. In his blog post, however, he’s got an even juicier tidbit:

I got a phone call the other day from one of the proponents of renaming Interstate Avenue for Cesar Chavez.

Apparently defeated in North Portland, the renamers were looking at Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway as a thoroughfare to honor Chavez.

Does that mean the committee is open to compromise? No word yet from city hall on that potential “third way” of honoring Chávez.

And finally, Lew Church of PSU’s Progressive Student Union not only wants Interstate renamed for Chávez, but he wants Portland State University renamed, too!

CESAR CHAVEZ UNIVERSITY

Dear Mercury — Amy Ruiz’s story (“The Interstate Solution,” Oct. 11) analyzes the current fight over renaming Interstate for labor leader Cesar Chavez in north Portland. At Portland State, PSU Progressive Student advocates that, in addition to renaming Interestate for the former UFW leader, PSU itself change the college’s name to Cesar Chavez University. After all, PSU became the 9th college in the U.S. to kick out Taco Bell from the cafeteria in the recent, nationally-successful Taco Bell Boycott organized by Florida farm workers, which resulted in the first pay raise for them in 20 years. Moreover, when some of us recently listened to Chavez cohort and UFW organizer Delores Huerta talk, in east LA, at the national conference of Students Against Sweatshops, Huerta noted that farm workers are among the most vital workers in the world, putting food on people’s tables, and yet, are among the world’s most vulnerable populations. As an undergrad many years ago, at Reed College, I heard Chavez himself talk, shortly before he died, when Cesar noted that labor rights are human rights, locally and globally. Perhaps the real questions is: Is Portland simply a city of Anglo yuppie wine consumers, or, a community where we honor the workers who harvest the grapes to start with?

Lew Church, Coordinator
PSU Progressive Student Union