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In the wake of public sexual assault and abuse allegations against union organizer Cesar Chavez, organizers of the annual parade in Austin honoring him canceled their upcoming event. Now, local activists and politicians are calling for the City of Austin to change the name of Cesar Chavez Street, the East-to-West thoroughfare running through the heart of Austin. We’ve got the latest from the fallout.
Austin-area state Rep. James Talarico will need to broaden his base of support in order to win the state’s U.S. Senate seat this fall. One group of voters he’ll have to convince will be those who voted for his Democratic primary opponent: Jasmine Crockett.
And March Madness is upon us! Don’t forget to fill your brackets and join us for today’s Austin Signal.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] In the wake of public sexual assault and abuse allegations against union organizer Cesar Chavez, organizers of the annual parade in Austin honoring him canceled their upcoming event. Now local activists and politicians are calling for the city of Austin to change the name of Cesar chavez street, the east to west thoroughfare running through the heart of Austin. We’ve got the latest from the fallout and Austin area state representative James Tallarico will need to broaden his base of support in order to win the state senate See this form? One group of voters he’ll have to convince will be those who voted for his Democratic counterpart. More about those stories coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:44] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Kehanel.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:49] And March Madness is upon us. Don’t forget to fill out your brackets, and join us for today’s episode of Austin Signal. Howdy out there, thank you for tuning in to Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano, and this is community-powered public radio KUT News. We’re glad you’re spending part of your Thursday here with us. We’re gonna start today with a quick elections update that’ll impact the upcoming runoffs. The Williamson County Republican Party voted to return to countywide voting for the May 26th party primary runoff. That news was confirmed to KUT by a representative for the county. The party must amend their election contract with the county before that change can be finalized. Williamson County Communications Director Connie Odom says a meeting to do that is set for March 24th, that’s next week. Earlier this month on primary election day, Williamson county voters had to vote at their assigned precincts rather than at any polling place in the county, as had been the custom, and that led to lots of confusion and frustration for many voters. We have more about this story over at KUT. Accusations of sexual assault and abuse of women and girls were made public against labor union organizer Cesar Chavez this week, and the fallout has been swift here in Austin. Chavez died in 1993. Organizers of the annual parade and celebration honoring him decided instead to cancel the event, which was set to take place later this month. But a more permanent and prominent honoring of Chavez is the main east-to-west connecting road at the center of Austin that’s named after him. Now activists and politicians alike are calling for change. For more about this story, we’re joined by QUT City Hall reporter, Luce Modeno Lozano. Luce, welcome back to the show.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:02:40] Thanks for having me, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:41] So when, first off, when did Austin rename the street for Cesar Chavez and who was behind that change?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:02:47] Yeah, you know, the city looked at this back in 1993, not long after he died. And this was pushed by a local nonprofit called El Concillo. They’re kind of made up of neighborhoods in East Austin, and they were the big driving force behind getting that namesake across the downtown corridor and down into East Austin. And I heard yesterday from the spokesperson that Austin might have been among the first to change a name and honor him like so soon after he died. So yeah, so 1993.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:19] And those accusations were made public yesterday and very quickly, El Concilio had a press conference yesterday. What else did you hear from them?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:03:25] Yeah, you know, this is very heavy, and I think people are kind of reacting in different ways, particularly this group. Because they pushed for the change in the first place, they’re now holding themselves accountable and trying to be respectful of the victims by asking counsel to kind of expedite this process in changing the name. You know, there was some discussion about what the name could be. You know I think Dolores Huerta has been kind of at the forefront of everyone’s minds lately, especially after the statement she released yesterday. And so maybe we could see that name possibly, but that was something that El Concillo had supported yesterday as part of this.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:07] OK, so that was the the voices from the community. We also heard from city leaders and council members. You talked to Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes. What did she have to say?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:04:15] Yeah, she, she just, man, it’s just it’s been a really heavy week. And I think as a Latina, she has been very moved by what Dolores Huerta has shared. And she believes that the city should be quick to act on this, to acknowledge what has happened here and to find a way to, to yeah, like acknowledge like, is Cesar Chavez as part of this? Like, do we need to do we need a street rename? And what could that look like? Um, I, I think there has been, um, some push from, from other council members behind this that, you know, she’s not the only one on this and so, um yeah, I think we’re going to see some movement from the city council on, on a potential name change.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:57] And yeah, there was a statement put out yesterday that was signed by Councilmember Jose Velasquez, Vanessa Fuentes, Delia Garza, and I’m missing one other person. Chito Vela. Chito Velas as well. What else did you hear from those other councilmembers?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:05:12] Yeah, you know, I talked with Jose Velasquez yesterday and he has also part of this group, as you mentioned, and he basically told me, he was like, look, like, it doesn’t matter who these leaders were. You could be the president of the United States, you could be head of a labor union, you know. Acknowledging these faults that they have, that have occurred is important. And so, you know. We have to be respectful of the people and the women who have come forward with this information. And he also was like, you know, I would not be surprised if the city council came forward with a policy change pretty quickly. And if the street is renamed, it would be something that the community would be part of.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:54] Yeah, and what does the City Council have to do? Do they have the power to rename the street officially?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:06:00] They do. There’s two ways that that can happen. A citizen petition like we saw from Alconcio in 1993 could help do that. The city could also put their own resolution and policy forward. So yeah, so I think it’ll be kind of a several weeks, maybe even months long process because there also has to be community input. Like they can’t just change the name of the street without informing all of the people who live and work along that that
Jerry Quijano [00:06:25] corridor. Yeah the fallout was pretty swift in the last 24 hours but this seems as though it’s gonna be a process that plays out over the next weeks and maybe months. Before you get out of here there are other murals and even a statue here on the UT campus honoring Chavez. Have we heard anything about the future of those?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:06:40] I think both of those will be up to the entities that maintain them. El Concillo only has power to kind of push the street name and the city only has the power to change that since it’s their property. But yeah, you know, UT I don’t think has responded yet. I heard yesterday that potentially the art of the Texas who helps maintain the mural over in East Austin on Cesar Chavez Street, I think they like the mural there. So we’ll see how they respond and if that needs to be changed.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:08] All right, we have been chatting with Luz Moreno Lozano. She is KUT City Hall reporter. We’re gonna have a link to her reporting in today’s show notes and at kut.org slash signal. Thank you, Luz. Thanks, Jerry. Texas Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Tallarico has become a prime target for the state’s Republicans since winning his party’s primary. But Tallarica has also been catching some flak from fellow Democrats, particularly those who voted for his primary opponent, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. She received more than a million votes in the Democratic primary and won overwhelming support from black voters in Texas. Between now and the fall, Tallaric faces a challenge, convincing Crocket voters to report him. In the general election. The Texas newsroom’s Blaise Gainey reports.
Blaise Gainey [00:08:01] While the Dallas area congresswoman didn’t win the Democratic US Senate nomination, Matt Engel says she accomplished one important thing.
Matt Engel [00:08:08] Jasmine Crockett did the best job of consolidating African-American vote that I’ve seen in my political lifetime, and I’m old, I’ve been around a while.
Blaise Gainey [00:08:16] Angle, who for the record is 68, runs the Lone Star Project, a Democratic political action committee. He says it’s been decades since Texas saw a black politician running statewide pool numbers like Crockett.
Matt Engel [00:08:28] She did a better job than Ron Kirk when he ran statewide and got nominated in 2002, you know, over 20 years ago. She did better job then Colin Allred did just two years ago when he was nominated for the U S Senate.
Blaise Gainey [00:08:41] We know that in part because of the demographics and places she did best. Michael Adams is a political science professor at Texas Southern University in Houston.
Michael Adams [00:08:50] Clearly, Jasmine Crockett did very well in the urban areas, particularly here in Harris County and also in Dallas and Tarrant County.
Blaise Gainey [00:08:58] In all, she got 46%, votes for more than 1,068,000 people. And while there wasn’t much campaign mudslinging, Democratic strategist Dallas Jones says the results left many Crockett fans with a bad taste in their mouth.
Dallas Jones [00:09:12] I think there’s a sentiment of great disappointment amongst black women.
Blaise Gainey [00:09:15] Something Jones says has been building for a long time.
Dallas Jones [00:09:19] Particularly where they often feel as though they show up for the party, but the party does not frequently enough show up for them.
Blaise Gainey [00:09:26] The frustration showed up on social media, where a wave of black women have voiced disappointment.
Excerpts [00:09:31] A mediocre white man won. Somehow, when a black woman is running, electability somehow becomes the main concern. And this is exactly why you see all the black people on the internet saying, F this, we’re done.
Blaise Gainey [00:09:45] Now, none of this is unexpected, especially after a hard-fought race. That’s according to Cliff Walker, an Austin-based political strategist.
Cliff Walker [00:09:53] Within a democratic primary, people have to prefer candidates, and afterwards, the work is always to reunite this party.
Blaise Gainey [00:10:01] Something Walker says Tallarico seems well aware of, even directly addressing Crockett’s supporters during his victory speech.
Cliff Walker [00:10:07] It’s on me to ensure you feel welcomed in, represented by, and proud of this campaign.
Blaise Gainey [00:10:15] But as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words, and the Democratic candidate has about 33 weeks to get it right. So what’s next? Or at least what should be next if Talarico wants to win black voters in Texas who may be a bit skeptical about him? For the experts I talked with, it boils down to two things, places and people.
Eric McDaniel [00:10:36] He’s going to need to be able to get a number of well-known black politicians.
Blaise Gainey [00:10:41] Eric McDaniel is a government professor at UT Austin.
Eric McDaniel [00:10:43] So Jasmine Crockett, but then also some of those who’ve been around for a while to come out in strong support, basically show up at his rallies, beat proxies for him. That’s the people part.
Blaise Gainey [00:10:53] As for places, strategist Cliff Walker thinks Tallarico’s campaign needs to get out into black spaces.
Cliff Walker [00:11:00] Visits at HBCUs to get them registered, to get them plugged in so that they can participate in the campaign.
Blaise Gainey [00:11:06] A word of caution though from McDaniel of UT. He says black voters could see Tallarico as inauthentic if the US Senate candidate suddenly starts doing things he’s not known for.
Eric McDaniel [00:11:16] He should have been doing this two or three years ago. Just like, Hey, I’m just here. Hey, how y’all doing? Let people get to know him. He could have earned that authenticity if he showed up several years ago
Blaise Gainey [00:11:27] One thing working for Tallarico is that Jasmine Crockett’s already voiced her support. Sort of. After the primary, she posted on X about being committed to getting Democrats elected in November. Later, on Facebook Live, she stressed the state’s U.S. Senate race was a big part of that.
Jasmine Crockett [00:11:43] No matter what, whether it’s Kim Paxson or John Cornyn, anyone would be better, I’m just saying.
Blaise Gainey [00:11:50] Still, Tallarico has his work cut out for him if he wants to be the first Texas Democrat to win a statewide office in more than 30 years. I’m Blaise Gainey in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:00] And on the Republican side, there is a primary runoff in this Senate race between incumbent Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Some dates to know for that runoff. The deadline to register to vote in the runoff or make an address change is April 27th. May 15th is the last day for ballot by mail applications to be received. And primary run off election day is May 26th. This is Austin Signal. We’ll be back after a break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. South by Southwest is officially over. The festival wrapped up yesterday, or early this morning for some of you, but for many, this year felt a bit different than in years past. Maybe it was the convention center being gone, or the shorter dates, or just this world in a post-pandemic age. Whatever the reason, there was a time when the streets were blocked off and festival and their badges just took over downtown. So today we’re gonna take a listen back before the pandemic to South by Southwest 2019 and find out the best way back then to get around downtown.
Mose Buchele [00:13:11] We met during the afternoon rush hour at Plaza Salteo in East Austin. You’ll hear the train there in the background. Each of our racers represented a different vehicle. We have someone who’s going to drive a car. Woo! This is Tom Buchel. Yeah, he’s my brother. Someone who’s gonna bike. Yeehaw! Katie De Oyo was our cyclist. And someone who is going to try this newer mobility option, the scooter. The most hated vehicle on the street. This is Zach T. Bloom, proud scooter guy. I’ve gotta, I’ve got to ask Zach, do you scoot?
Zach T [00:13:43] Bro, do you even sk-
Mose Buchele [00:13:44] I scoot, bro.
Zach T [00:13:46] It’s the easiest way to get home when surge pricing is on.
Mose Buchele [00:13:49] I was referee, manning the start and finish lines and keeping time. The course would run through the boozy, beating heart of SXSW from Plaza Saltillo to the Convention Center, then up Congress to 6th Street and back to the plaza. Does that seem reasonable, doable? Yeah, totally. I’m in. Sounds great. Excellent. But first, a little more about our volunteers. Like I said, Tom is my brother, but I promise I gave no special treatment. Katie, I didn’t know before she volunteered, but it turns out, bikes are kind of her thing.
Katie [00:14:19] I’m actually a league cycling instructor with the League of American Bicyclists.
Mose Buchele [00:14:22] She’s also served on city bike and pedestrian advisory councils and is a fitness teacher and safe cycling advocate. So I know the laws. We do know each other. I met him last year when he took up a challenge to only eat and drink what he could find for free at South By. Turned out there was a little more drink than eat in that experiment. Everybody, go at your own speed. Don’t endanger yourselves. I’m looking at you, Zach. I got a helmet ready. Right. Well, Tom ran to get the car. Katie and Zach unlocked their rides. He was on one of those standup scooters. She chose an e-bike. And when time got back… Two, three, go! Off they go. Oh no. We have a cyclist.
Tom [00:15:14] Alright, staying in the bike lane.
Zach T [00:15:16] Scooter person, got her behind me, and a car.
Zach T [00:15:19] The bike and the scooter have both pulled ahead to what may be an incident.
Mose Buchele [00:15:24] That’s the amount of a lead. Now to record their progress, I’d fitted each person with a clip-on microphone. I didn’t hear any of this until after the race, but the audio reveals big differences in technique among the races.
Zach T [00:15:41] Up on 4th and Waller O, the bike’s catching up with me pretty quickly here.
Tom [00:15:46] Turn right onto fourth, look over my shoulder, signal going right, make clear.
Zach T [00:15:52] I’m clear. Alright, I’m gaining back up on them and we’re all approaching the stop sign on Waller.
Zach T [00:15:58] Sign it forth and waller if she’s going to pass me here if I’m not careful slowing to a stop looking both ways and going
Zach T [00:16:05] Ooh, the scooter kinda scooted that one. Didn’t come to a complete stop at the sign.
Zach T [00:16:10] I held the lead somehow.
Zach T [00:16:11] He’s living on the edge.
Zach T [00:16:14] She got held up at that one stop sign and I didn’t.
Tom [00:16:16] Our scooter person is far ahead of me now.
Zach T [00:16:19] Huge lead.
Mose Buchele [00:16:29] Now, before the race had started, we’d all taken odds on who was going to win. Bicycle was everybody’s favorite. But with that early, questionable stop, Zach was actually the first to make it to the convention center. The car, we’d always known would probably be a loser. The question was, by how much? And soon after Zach pulled ahead, Tom hit some trouble with street closures.
Zach T [00:16:55] As is common knowledge, 6th Street is closed between I-35 and Congress Avenue. Now we thought we had all this figured out. I think I can…
Mose Buchele [00:17:07] To take a left.
Zach T [00:17:11] Sorry about that.
Mose Buchele [00:17:12] Tom was sent up I-35, looking for a street to get him back downtown. Meanwhile, as the other two neared six in Congress, Katie was gaining on Zach.
Zach T [00:17:24] Following us behind. Going to be a little bit of a bind here.
Mose Buchele [00:17:28] But whenever she got closer, something would happen. There’d be a stop sign, a one-way street, a rule to follow.
Katie [00:17:36] We have to yield the right-of-way to people walking here at the crosswalk.
Mose Buchele [00:17:40] She’d stop to talk to.
Katie [00:17:41] I have to yield the right of way to you.
Mose Buchele [00:17:43] Zach was taking a different approach.
Zach T [00:17:51] Going on the sidewalk, ignoring the rules. She’s not going to like this, but I’m doing it.
Tom [00:17:55] Zach’s going on the sidewalk, which is verboten here in Austin.
Zach T [00:18:00] This won’t win brownie points, I’m not going to make friends with the pedestrians, but I’m going to do what I had to do. And back in the car, Tom was…
Mose Buchele [00:18:09] Conceding defeat.
Zach T [00:18:12] The inability to move or accelerate the car at all, you can really engage in top-notch people watching.
Mose Buchele [00:18:24] Yeah, we should just shut down all the roads down here. Strangely enough, that was the same thing Katie was thinking at around the exact same time.
Tom [00:18:33] I think it’s not moving.
Mose Buchele [00:18:35] Let’s go, let’s go. He was coming up on the finish line. Woo! Wait, what? Is that Zach? Yes it is. Zach is back. That did the loop in 14 minutes and 30 seconds.
Zach T [00:18:54] I want. This is an upset. Oh my god. I was just pacing saying this is an up set.
Mose Buchele [00:18:59] I got him. Katie arrived almost exactly a minute later.
Katie [00:19:03] Cheers, cheers, cheers!
Mose Buchele [00:19:06] All right, come on over here out of the way and we’ll talk. We huddled up and went over the race. I cut down the sidewalk the wrong way. And I mean…
Tom [00:19:15] It’s illegal in Austin, I promise you, it’s against the rules.
Mose Buchele [00:19:20] A-ling-al-ish. As you can tell, the race raised more questions than it answered. One, if Zach had paid better attention to the rules and etiquette, would he have been first?
Zach T [00:19:32] To do to win.
Mose Buchele [00:19:33] I just am like, I’m not gonna ride my bike on the sidewalk. As things stood, it seemed like Zach came in first while Katie chose the moral victory. Well, congratulations.
Tom [00:19:43] Thank you, second is the best.
Mose Buchele [00:19:48] Then there was Tom. After a while, I decided to call him. Don’t worry, he was talking hands-free.
Mose Buchele [00:19:56] Hey man, just checking in, how you doing?
Mose Buchele [00:20:00] Pretty rough man, pretty rough. He had reached neither checkpoint and was at a standstill.
Zach T [00:20:06] Oh, look at these scooters just whizzing past me. This is really just rubbing it in, all these scootars that are just whizzing past.
Mose Buchele [00:20:17] Oh, look at them go. We decided he should just try to get back to me, and I would jog towards him to save time. In the end, we got some running in, too. Hey! You made it.
Zach T [00:20:33] One hour and 31 seconds later.
Mose Buchele [00:20:36] Not bad, man. Not bad. Mo’s Mouchel, KUT News.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:49] Well, the men’s NCAA basketball championship tournament officially tipped off this morning. And after squeezing by North Carolina State in Tuesday’s first four game, the 11th seed of Texas Longhorns will face sixth seed BYU in tonight’s round one matchup. Texas has only advanced past the second round of the tournament once since the 2008-2009 season. That’s a long time. Head coach Sean Miller says getting an early start could pay dividends for his team tonight. And on into the tournament. Let’s hear from him.
Sean Miller [00:21:21] You know, I think that our nerves sometimes can settle through game one. You can gain confidence. You already have one game to your advantage. But we’re going to have to play a really good team. And we’re gonna definitely have to pay better.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:35] The Longhorns will face the Cougars tonight in Portland, Oregon. Tip-off is scheduled for just before 6.30 this evening local time. And the action continues tomorrow with the beginning of the women’s championship tournament. Texas is a number one seed in this year’s tourney, and that means they’re gonna start the games with a home court advantage. The Moody Center will be hosting games tomorrow and Sunday. The action starts with an eight, nine seed match up tomorrow. That’s Oregon versus Virginia Tech. And that’ll be followed by the one seeded Longhorns taking on Missouri State. The winners will meet back up at the Moody Center on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16. And we will keep you updated on all the action happening here in Austin. Right here on Austin Signal, we are community powered public radio from KUT News. Here with you every weekday afternoon at one o’clock and wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you want to catch up on any shows you might have missed this week, head on over to KUT.org slash Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We will be back with you tomorrow. Enjoy your spring break. Enjoy that lighter traffic. Thanks for tuning in. This is Austin Signal.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
