Cesar E. Chavez Drive

When traveling across Cesar E. Chavez Drive today, onlookers will see a peaceful, calm area where families can gather and relax next to Canyon Lakes 1 and 2. It stretches from Avenue U, across University Avenue, and ends near North Loop 269. This street was renamed to commemorate the life of Cesar Chavez, but not without great conflict.

The city of Lubbock has a history of renaming streets after prestigious figures. It has renamed streets in honor of Buddy Holly, The Crickets, Mac Davis, Glenna Goodacre, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In late 2007, Lubbock renamed part of Canyon Lake Drive to Cesar E. Chavez Drive.

This name change did not go unopposed. There was much support from the Hispanic community in Lubbock, but there was debate about the particular location to be named after Chavez.

Cesar Chavez was a prominent civil rights activist from the 1950s through the early 1990s, according to the United Farm Workers’ web page.

He led nonviolent strikes, marches and boycotts in order to bring attention to the plight of farm workers, animal rights, gay rights, and other injustices during his time.

The task in naming a street in Lubbock after Chavez came with much struggle, Christy Martinez-Garcia said.

Although there were several willing to take action, significant progress was not made until Martinez-Garcia decided to take the lead. She stepped in and decided she would organize a group to seriously propose the idea to the city of Lubbock.

Martinez-Garcia is a member of the Cesar Chavez Celebration Committee and also publisher and owner of Latino Lubbock Magazine.

What Martinez-Garcia and her proponents thought would be an easy proposition turned out to be hell to make happen, she said.

“Chavez was a peaceful man and the road we were selecting was just a park road,” Martinez-Garcia said. “We thought it would be so easy, and it was quite the opposite. There was such resistance.”

Racial divides and opposition

After planning a proposal for some time, the day had come to approach Lubbock city council and bring the idea to fruition. Martinez-Garcia partnered with Councilwoman Linda DeLeon. DeLeon was the person at city hall that Martinez-Garcia needed in order to be heard.

“When you have city council meetings, they’re recorded and televised,” Martinez-Garcia said. “I told people where to sit in order to make it look like we had large numbers. You only had three minutes to express your concerns. As a PR person, I started to create fact sheets. I’d tell people, ‘You’re going to focus on this, and you’re going to read this.’ Everybody had a role. We were in there and we were very strategic, very organized.”

Then came opposition from others in the community. There was a business that ran alongside the road. It had management that disagreed with the name change because they had become accustomed to Canyon Lake Drive.

Some in the African-American community also opposed the idea.

“They didn’t like the idea because for the first time in the history of the United States, streets named after Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez would cross,” Martinez-Garcia said. “They felt like we were trying to go into their area.”

Nonetheless, Martinez-Garcia made her pitch and would need to wait for a decision.

Persistence

After several months of deliberation, Martinez-Garcia and her supporters did not give up. The crowd of advocates continued to grow.

Martinez-Garcia said she had people from all over the city getting involved.

“We had student groups like the Hispanic Lawsuit Association, the Hispanic Student Society, Sigma Lambda Beta, and ODPHi (Omega Delta Phi),” she said. “Plus, we had the high school students getting involved. We had the senior citizens getting involved. We had church leaders and priests getting involved. I was getting anybody and everybody that would listen. We were building interest and excitement.”

It was not just the Hispanic community making an effort. There were individuals like Dr. Lynda McBride who looked beyond skin color and realized the movement was good for the community, Martinez-Garcia said.

“At the time, there was not one single street named after a Latino in this community,” she said. “It was bound to happen sooner or later.”

The day came when city council voted on whether the proposal was to be passed. There were police officers securing the area and people filling the parking lot. Locals brought the advocates food and coffee to show their support.

“All these people were there for us that morning,” Martinez-Garcia said, beginning to tear up. “It was awesome to see that support. As a person leading the charge, it was very humbling.”

Tavita Dorrow, a co-founder for the Hispanic Association for Women, was an advocate of the movement.

She said Martinez-Garcia led the charge and did most of the work.

“It was good that we had a leader like her that was not going to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Dorrow said. “For people that were aware of the history of farm workers, it really fulfilled some notion that this would happen in Lubbock.”

Martinez-Garcia and the other advocates eventually went into the council chambers. The city council voted the proposal down that day. The councilmen were ready for an uproar, but Martinez-Garcia had already told the public they needed to do the same thing that Cesar Chavez did.

“Whatever happens, we have to be peaceful,” she said. “We have to demonstrate how wrong they were against us. I said, ‘OK. We’re coming on stronger.’ And we did.”

Martinez-Garcia made sure to appear at the council chambers and had sit-ins whenever opportunities presented themselves.

“We were heavily publicizing on the radio, everything,” she said. “Then it was time to do the next vote and we got it.”

Part of Canyon Lake Drive was changed to Cesar E. Chavez Drive, but it was not until after Martinez-Garcia gathered signatures from homeowners in the area that the majority of the road would be named after Chavez.

Martinez-Garcia once visited the area where Cesar Chavez lived. She visited the area called La Paz in Keene, Calif. “La Paz” translates to “The Peace” in English.

“It was a reflection of that lake (Canyon Lakes),” she said. “It was beautiful. It was dry. It looked like Lubbock. It was then, I said, ‘Oh my God. Yeah, this is perfect.”