César E. Chávez National Monument, also known as Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz, is a

U.S. National Monument In the United States, a national monument is a protected area that can be created from any land owned or controlled by the federal government by proclamation of the President of the United States or an act of Congress. National monuments prot ...

in Keene,

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, located about 32 miles away from Bakersfield, California. The property was the headquarters of the

United Farm Workers The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing ...

(UFW), and home to

César Chávez Cesar Chavez (born Cesario Estrada Chavez ; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merg ...

from the early 1970s until his death in 1993. Chávez's gravesite is located in the property's gardens along with that of his wife,

Helen Fabela Chávez Helen Fabela Chávez (January 21, 1928 – June 6, 2016) was an American labor activist for the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA). Aside from her affiliation with the UFW, she was a second-generation Chicano, Chicana with a traditional upb ...

. Originally developed as a headquarters and worker housing area for a quarry, it served as a tuberculosis sanitarium (known as Stony Brook Sanitorium) in the early 1900s, until its acquisition by the UFW in the early 1970s.

History

Cesar E. Chavez National Monument was established by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

on October 8, 2012 by proclamation under authority of the

Antiquities Act The Antiquities Act of 1906 (, , ), is an act that was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. This law gives the President of the United States the authority to, by presidential procla ...

. The monument is located among the

Tehachapi Mountains The Tehachapi Mountains (; Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately in southern Kern County and northwe ...

in Keene, California, about southeast of Bakersfield. The property is known as Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz (La Paz), which was designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

along with the monument on October 8, 2012. The monument is the 398th unit in the National Park System and is managed collaboratively by the National Park Service and the National Chavez Center. The Center and members of the Chávez family donated properties of La Paz to the federal government to establish the national monument. Initial funding was provided by the

National Park Foundation The National Park Foundation (NPF) is the official charity of the National Park Service (NPS) and its national park sites. The NPF was chartered by Congress in 1967 with a charge to "further the conservation of natural, scenic, historic, scientif ...

and the America Latino Heritage Fund. Some of the monument's services and programs are still in development, but a visitor center and memorial garden where Chavez is buried are open to the public. Certain areas of the monument are closed to the public due to the Chávez family still living in La Paz, and members of the UFW still working in the UFW offices located on the property.

Proposed inclusion in national park

In October 2013, the site was identified as one of several to be part of a proposed new

National Historical Park National Historic Site (NHS) is a designation for an officially recognized area of national historic significance in the United States. An NHS usually contains a single historical feature directly associated with its subject. The National Historic ...

to commemorate the life and work of Cesar Chávez and the farm worker movement. Other sites for the proposed new park—which requires Congressional approval—include the Filipino Community Hall in

Delano, California Delano ( ) is a city in Kern County, California, United States. Delano is located north-northwest of Bakersfield at an elevation of . The population was 51,428 in 2020, down from 53,041 in 2010. It is Kern County's second-largest city after B ...

(headquarters of the Delano grape strike), The Forty Acres (the original UFW headquarters in Delano), McDonnell Hall in San Jose, and the Santa Rita Center in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

References

External links

NPS: Official Cesar E. Chavez National Monument websiteChavezfoundation.org: Cesar Chavez Foundation
{{authority control United Farm Workers National Park Service National Monuments in California Chavez, Cesar History museums in California Museums in Kern County, California Protected areas of Kern County, California History of labor relations in the United States National Monuments designated by Barack Obama National Register of Historic Places in Kern County, California Protected areas established in 2012 2012 establishments in California Cesar Chavez

History

Proposed inclusion in national park

See also

References

External links