Posted on 10/06/2012 1:08:11 PM PDT by Uncle Chip
KEENE, Calif. (AP) — Maria Ybarra's trailer is one of two left on the property that for over two decades was home to Latino labor leader Cesar Chavez and farmworkers like Ybarra who made up his movement.
Today, the foothills of the Tehachapi mountains continue to house the United Farm Workers of America headquarters and memorials to Chavez, though farmworkers no longer live there.
On Monday, during a campaign swing through California, President Barack Obama will designate 105 acres of the property as a national monument within the National Park system — a move that could help shore up support from Hispanic and progressive voters before the election.
As head of the UFW, the Arizona-born Chavez staged a massive grape boycott and countless field strikes, and forced growers to sign contracts providing better pay and working conditions to the predominantly Latino farmworkers. He was credited with inspiring millions of other Latinos in their fight for more educational opportunities, better housing and more political power.
The 187-acre site, known as Nuestra Senora Reina de la Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace), or simply La Paz, served as the planning and coordination center of the UFW starting in 1971. It's where Chavez and many organizers lived, trained and strategized before heading into the fields and cities of California and beyond. Chavez taught farmworkers how to write contracts and negotiate with growers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
In 2004, the National Chavez Center was opened on the UFW national headquarters campus in Keene by the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. It currently consists of a visitor center, memorial garden and his grave site. When it is fully completed, the 187-acre (0.76 km2) site will include a museum and conference center to explore and share Chávez's work.[33] On September 14, 2011, the U.S. Department of the Interior added the 187 acres (76 ha) Nuestra Senora Reina de La Paz ranch to the National Register of Historic Places.[40]
Will it explore and share Chavez's work against illegal immigration???
Okay, I confess, I didn’t read...thought it said Che Guevarra!
Chavez was a damn site better. Still doesn’t deserve a freakin’ ‘national monument!’ The illegal alien drug cartels will just grow dope on it.
Chavez came to my high school for a rally in 1973. We were told there was a mandatory assembly in the gym. When we got there, the teachers seperated us by race. Whites on this side, and Chicano’s on the other side. Then Chevez came out and gave us all a speech encouraging us to all boycott lettuce. We all looked at each other and said WTF!
No kidding, I was there. I looked at my hispanic buddies I grew up with,sitting across the gym, and they were rolling their eyes...
Well, YOU remembered! And you’re probably not even
Hispanic!
Well, you shouldn’t have expected him to be Ralph Nader.
.
These people threatened to to rape/beat up the wives and daughters of the farm workers to make them join their union. The workers themselves didn't want to join.
This is stupid but, it's Obama so what do we expect?
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