FORT WORTH -- A group of community leaders launched an effort Friday to rename a major roadway in Fort Worth after civil rights figure Cesar Chavez.
Supporters have not settled on which roadway for which to seek the designation, but prefer one connecting north Fort Worth to south Fort Worth, areas with strong Hispanic neighborhoods.
"Cesar Chavez is a hero to the Hispanic community," said Renny Rosas, a committee member. "He is our Martin Luther King. We need to be promoting individuals like that."
One preferred candidate for the change is Interstate 35W between north and south Loop 820 because "it connects the two largest barrios in Tarrant County," Rosa said. "To us, it is a very significant highway."
A state transportation official who attended Friday's committee meeting said such a change could be difficult. Interstate 35 from Laredo to the Red River is already named the Purple Heart Trail in honor of military veterans.
State legislators bestowed the name and would have to approve a change next legislative session.
"There is already a name so that would be a challenge," said Maribel Chavez, a district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation. "You could work from what hasn't been named."
John Bircher, a spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, said the trail has been established in 47 states and his organization would be disappointed if the name was removed from any stretch.
However, highways designated Purple Heart Trail in several states are also named in someone else's honor, he said.
"We would have no problem with sharing a name," Bircher said. "Just don't take it away."
Rosas said he is a military veteran and believed it was possible to honor veterans and Chavez, who played a major role in improving conditions for Hispanic farmworkers.
The city of Fort Worth has the authority to rename roadways within city limits. Dana Burghdoff, assistant director of planning for the city, told the group she would help compile a list of six to eight possible roadways that the group could pursue for the change.
Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, who attended Friday's meeting and supports naming a roadway after Chavez, said Friday's meeting was the first step in putting together a plan for the change. He said he has not taken a position on which roadway should receive the designation.
"I'm not married to anything but the concept at this point," Burnam said. "We need to look at all the options."
During the meeting, several people in attendance urged keeping the proposal from becoming divisive in the community. Efforts to rename streets after Chavez in Dallas have erupted into nasty feuds with racial overtones.
Fort Worth City Councilman Sal Espino said "We have to be sensitive to the needs of everyone in the community."
ALEX BRANCH, 817-390-7689
Of the estimated 189 men who died in the Alamo, six were actually born in Texas: Juan Abamillo, Juan A. Badillo, Carlos Espalier, Gregorio Esparza, Antonio Fuentes, and Andrés Nava. How about naming a road after one of them instead of Chavez? They are all Hispanics we can be proud of--not a grape protester.