San Jose Council Votes Unanimously to Rename Plaza de César Chávez as Plaza de San José
In San Jose, Santa Clara County, California, the City Council voted unanimously on October 27 to rename the downtown plaza named for labor leader César Chávez (Plaza de César Chávez) as Plaza de San José. The plaza is among the city's oldest public spaces, and its current name had been in use since 1993.
The renaming appeared as item 7.1 on the Council's October 27 agenda (file 26-1117), brought forward by the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department, with a waiver of the sponsorship and contribution renaming criteria in Council Policy 7-5. The city collected name suggestions and ran a ranked-choice vote: more than 10,500 people took part, and 4,116 ranked Plaza de San José first. Other top contenders included Farmworkers Plaza and Plaza del Pueblo.
'For over 200 years this plaza has been central to our city,' Mayor Matt Mahan said. Councilmember Anthony Tordillos, whose District 3 includes the plaza, said the Council did not dictate the name and instead let the community choose.
The plaza site served as California's state capital from 1849 to 1851 and was renamed for Chávez in 1993. The renaming process began after a New York Times investigation published in March 2026 detailed sexual misconduct allegations against Chávez; the Chávez name on the plaza had earlier been covered over in concrete.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：圣何塞市政厅（资料图）。来源：GSM 城市站图片库 / San Jose City Hall (file photo). Source: GSM city-station image library.
