A Barrio Logan post office could soon be renamed to honor the late Armando Rodriguez, an educator and civil rights leader from the area who served in the administrations of four U.S. presidents.
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The federal building since 2009 has been named for the late labor leader Cesar Chavez, whose name is now being removed from positions of honor across California after a report that he sexually abused young girls.
Legislation to rename the building at 2777 Logan Ave. the Armando Rodriguez Post Office was introduced by Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Juan Vargas on Tuesday.
Vargas called the allegations against Chavez “depressing” — but said it’s “uplifting” to be able to honor a leader like Rodriguez.
“He’s so well known by so many of us that I think he’s a wonderful person that should be memorialized,” Vargas said.
Born in Mexico in 1921, Rodriguez grew up in Logan Heights. He served in the Army during World War II, then came home, attended what is now San Diego State University and earned a degree in special education.
Later, with a master’s degree from SDSU, he became a school administrator, serving briefly as a principal in San Diego Unified School District before moving on to work for the state Department of Education.
In the late 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Rodriguez to head an office within the then-Department of Health, Education and Welfare. While there, Rodriguez pushed for bilingual education to help new students succeed.
He went on to work for Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. After leaving government, he worked as a consultant and helped start a computer-literacy program for underprivileged children. He died in 2019 at 97.
“Armando did so many things for so many people, but there was never that ‘Look what he’s doing, look what he’s doing.’ He just plodded along and did it,” said Maria Garcia, a retired school principal who interviewed Rodriguez for two books she wrote on San Diego history.
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Garcia says Rodriguez was the first person she heard use the word Chicano — one more typically used among the activist community — in the early 1970s. It validated the term, she said.
The bill to change the name of the Barrio Logan post office is the latest in a string of efforts to rename landmarks named after Chavez.
Following the March publication of an investigation by The New York Times into the sexual abuse allegations, San Diego officials swiftly moved to remove Chavez’s name from landmarks, including a community center in San Ysidro and the former Cesar Chavez Parkway, recently renamed Chicano Park Boulevard.
The state holiday Cesar Chavez Day was renamed to Farmworkers Day to honor the collective movement he helped lead for fair wages and working conditions for agricultural workers in the U.S.
San Diego Unified is working to remove his name from Cesar Chavez Elementary School, and Oceanside Unified is doing the same with Cesar Chavez Middle School.
San Diego Unified board president Richard Barrera — a senior policy adviser for the state Department of Education, and a candidate for state superintendent of schools — said he’s supportive and grateful that Rodriguez could now be honored through the Barrio Logan post office.
He says Rodriguez’s legacy and ability to instill confidence in students is well-known among educators — and something he wants more young people to know about.
“He’s a legendary educator in our community,” he said. “I hope that the renaming of the post office actually leads to us in the school district developing curriculum and letting young people know about Armando’s history.”
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