Study CÉSAR CHÁVEZ’s story in the Tehachapis
In the busiest days of César Chávez’s battles to gain rights for farmworkers in the Central Valley and beyond, he huddled with aides in the Kern County hamlet of Keene in the hills 30 miles southeast of Bakersfield. Chávez (1927-1993) and his wife, Helen (1928-2016), are buried there, at a site now known as César E. Chávez National Monument.
Chávez, born in Yuma, Ariz., might be the most influential labor leader in California history. The national monument’s visitor center — set in a hillscape that gets luminously green after substantial rains — is managed by the National Park Service and the Chávez Foundation, which runs the 187-acre compound that includes the center.
The visitor center offers biographical videos, a recreation of the labor leader’s office, a memorial garden and exhibits detailing the many causes Chávez pursued. Admission is free.
For breakfast or lunch, try the Keene Cafe half a mile west of the monument on WoodfordTehachapi Road. Or pause in the town of Tehachapi, about 11 miles southeast of the monument, for a stroll and a snack at Kohnen’s Country Bakery.
BONUS TIP: Just 3.2 miles east of Keene, you can see a marvel of railway engineering that draws fans from around the world. From an overlook on WoodfordTehachapi Road, you can see the Tehachapi Loop, a 3,800foot section of railroad track built by Southern Pacific engineers and Chinese immigrant laborers in the 1870s and still used by freight trains daily. Employing bridges and tunnels, the route makes a spiral as it climbs a 2.2% grade. Any train 4,000 feet or longer will briefly pass over its own rear cars in the tunnel 77 feet below.