Local dignitaries pay tribute to Chavez
It was at his family ranch in Keene, California, that civil rights icon Cesar Chavez found inner peace, according to family and friends.
“Going to Keene was an opportunity for him to move away from the day-to-day struggles and the pressure and the tension,” said his nephew,
Rudy Chavez Medina. “It’s so serene up there, and it’s so calm. It gives you a good feeling of freedom.”
On Wednesday, more than 100 local community members made the four-hour trip south to see the grounds for themselves, for a pilgrimage honoring the labor leader. Chavez died 24 years ago, April 24, 1993.
The event was sponsored by Santa Clara County Supervisor
Dave Cortese, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Cesar Chavez Foundation, the County Office of Immigrant Relations, La Raza Roundtable and the United Farm Workers.
Local notables in attendance included San Jose City Councilman Sergio
Jimenez, San Jose Planning Commissioner Aaron Resendez, Carlos Figueroa of the Greater San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Daniel Peralta and Alberto Carrillo of the American GI Forum.
Participants, including Medina and other Chavez family members, took an early morning bus to Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz ranch, the home and workplace of the Chavez family and headquarters of the United Farm Workers union, which Cesar Chavez co-founded in 1962 with labor activist Dolores
Huerta. Chavez is also buried in a memorial garden on the grounds.
“It’s important for people to go to the headquarters and to see where Cesar worked for 25 of his 33 years as a farm labor leader and experience some of the things that he was able to experience while he was there,” said Medina, who called Chavez his mentor.
The group was guided through the grounds by
Paul Chavez, Cesar Chavez’s son and president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation and
Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers. The ranch and national monument was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012 by former President Barack Obama.