Chicagoans react to César Chavez abuse allegations

Good morning, Chicago. ✶

🔎 Below: Chicago’s labor and Latino communities react to allegations that César Chavez abused women and girls.

🗞️ Plus: How spending panned out for super PACs in the primaries, artwork in the Obama Center and more news you need to know.

📝 Keeping score: Bulls suffered a blowout loss to Raptors, 139-109.

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⏱️: An 8-minute read

TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️

Mostly sunny with a high near 57.

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TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎

César Chavez abuse allegations sadden and shock Chicago’s Latino community

By Michael Puente and Araceli Gómez-Aldana

Sex abuse accusations: Chicago-area supporters of César Chavez, a Latino civil rights icon publicly celebrated in much of the city, expressed anger and shock over allegations that he sexually abused women and girls as he led the movement for farmworker rights in the 1960s and ‘70s. A New York Times investigation released Wednesday found Chavez groomed young girls who worked in the movement, while his alleged adult victims include fellow leader Dolores Huerta.

Union town’s reaction: Chavez, who died in 1993, has long been championed in the city’s Latino and labor strongholds. Now there are calls nationally to change events, memorials and public artworks created in his honor — like those in Chicago, including a public elementary school, a plaque at the Haymarket Memorial in the West Loop, and murals located from Southport to Little Village.

Key quote: Rosa Jimenez-Hernandez, an instructor at Sadlowski Elementary on the East Side, wrote a statement posted to her Facebook page that reads, “We chant ‘Si Se Puede’ together in his honor thanks to an online video lesson about him and his fight that I assign through an e-learning platform … It makes [students] proud to be brown. It made me proud too. That’s ALL over now.”

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CITY COUNCIL 🏛️

City Council freezes pay for tipped workers at 76% of minimum wage to help restaurants

By Fran Spielman

Less than minimum: Chicago’s tipped workers could have their hourly pay frozen at 76% of the city’s minimum wage, thanks to a City Council vote Wednesday that throws a bone to struggling restaurants but sets the stage for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s third veto.

Johnson says no: As Chicago becomes increasingly unaffordable, Johnson said this week, it would be “not only tone deaf, but irresponsible” to stop what’s supposed to be a five-year phaseout of the subminimum wage for tipped workers. The vote to freeze the phaseout was 30-18; the council needs 34 votes to override a mayoral veto.

Restaurants fight back: Some eateries have joined the campaign armed with surveys that underscore what they claim is an urgent need for economic relief for an industry that hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic. Those surveys show nearly 500 Chicago restaurants closed during the first half of 2025 and that the total workforce at full-service restaurants remains 7,800 jobs below prepandemic levels.

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ELECTIONS 🗳️

Super PAC scorecard: How outside groups fared in efforts to influence Illinois primary voters

By Mitchell Armentrout and Tina Sfondeles

Return on investment: How far did more than $50 million go in Tuesday’s primary election for the special interest groups trying to influence Illinois voters? Results were mixed for super PACs and other outside entities that pumped an unprecedented amount of money into dozens of races across the state to boost their preferred candidates.

Some payoffs, some losses: While cryptocurrency interests were largely left empty-handed, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee saw some of its biggest Illinois investments pay off. Gambling companies and tech giants saw uneven returns, but a fund backed by billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker won big.

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MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️

• Firefighter’s death: Chicago police on Wednesday arrested a man sought in connection to a Rogers Park blaze that resulted in the death of a firefighter earlier this week.
• Threats to governor: A suburban man has been arrested for allegedly threatening Gov. JB Pritzker, according to Illinois State Police.
• Nation’s highest hotel tax: Chicago’s already sky-high hotel tax will climb to 19%, the highest in the nation, to help pay to market the city to convention organizers and tourists.
• Housing board: Three new board members have joined the Housing Authority of Cook County, replacing two members who resigned and one whose term expired.
• MCA director to leave: The Museum of Contemporary Art’s director, Madeleine Grynsztejn, says 2026 will be her last year.

ARTS AND CULTURE 🎨

The Obama Presidential Center is taking a big swing at contemporary art collection

By Kyle MacMillan

New take: The Obama Presidential Center will veer away from the conventional approach to presidential libraries. Former President Barack Obama and ex-First Lady Michelle Obama envision art as a fundamental part of the $800 million Center, which will open after 10 years of planning and construction.

Community hub: Twenty-eight famous and not-so-famous artists have been commissioned to create large-scale works for the four-building complex on Chicago’s South Side. The Obama Center will not hold Oval Office archives. Rather, it will function as a hub for Chicagoans to get together – whether at the campus’ athletic center, its library branch or its art gallery.

Key quote: Virginia Shore, the Obama Center’s curator of commissions, has zeroed in on a varied mix of artists, from up-and-comers to contemporary masters. Her list includes some of Chicago’s most prominent Black artists, including sculptor and installation artist Nick Cave. The arts and humanities continue to be a major part of the couple’s work today, Shore said: “It is a belief in art being reflective of our national soul.”

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FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚾ 🖥️ 🏈 🏀

• New Sox Stadium?: The White Sox may have taken the first step to securing land that could house a new stadium. On Wednesday, owner-in-waiting Justin Ishbia’s private equity firm, Shore Capital Partners, was in the process of buying a 47-acre rail yard in the South Loop.
• Cubs back on Hulu: The Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network is back on Hulu + Live TV. The network announced Wednesday that it’s now available on the streaming service in the Cubs’ market at no additional fee.
• New defense: The Bears added depth to their defensive tackle position Wednesday when they agreed to sign James Lynch to a one-year deal, a source confirmed to the Sun-Times.
• WNBA bargain: The WNBA and its players have reached a verbal agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert says she expects the season to start on time.

CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭

PLAY NOW

BRIGHT ONE 🔆

A local choir is singing for women across history, including the suffragettes who secured voting rights

By Graham Meyer

Composer Jocelyn Hagen’s “multimedia symphony” titled “Here I Am” is receiving its Illinois premiere, performed March 20 and 22 by local choir Consonance at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest. The symphony proves women can get big commissions, and Hagen’s piece takes that milestone literally, celebrating the achievements and wisdom of women across history.

The commission, originally from the Arizona-based True Concord Voices & Orchestra, arose domino effect-wise out of Hagen’s first big project, “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.” She bootstrapped “Notebooks” by organizing several musical ensembles into a consortium to split costs and to ensure more performances. True Concord loved “Notebooks” so much, it asked Hagen for another big piece to honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote.

Premiering in the Chicago area during Women’s History Month, the 45-minute “Here I Am” sets quotations by 47 women throughout history, such as Virginia Woolf, Shirley Chisholm, Lucretia Mott, Audre Lorde and Malala Yousafzai.

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Written and curated by: Phyllis Cha

Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia

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