Cesar Chavez Home to Become National Monument
President Barack Obama has announced that the home of labor leader Cesar Chavez will be designated as a national monument on Monday.
The announcement from The White House said that Obama would establish the Keene, Calif. home as the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument as the President stops by California along his campaign tour next week.
Obama explained in a statement that Chavez "gave a voice to the poor and disenfranchised workers everywhere," according to the Associated Press.
Just five weeks ahead of the presidential election, Obama's announcement will likely gather support from Hispanic and progressive voters.
A farm worker leader and civil rights activist, Chavez used the home, known as La Paz, as a national headquarters of the United Farm Workers union as well as his home until his death in 1993. Chavez's burial grounds will be included as part of the monument.
"Chavez' legacy will be preserved and shared to inspire generations to come" by designating the La Paz as a national monument, said Obama.
The White House also noted that Chavez was a leader who obtained basic worker provisions such as protection from dangerous pesticides for thousands of farm workers across the country.
The property is also known as Nuestra Senora Reina de la Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace), and it is called La Paz for short. The National Park Service, the National Chavez Center and the Cesar Chavez Foundation will manage the national monument together.
This year is the 50th anniversary of Chavez's founding of the National Farm Workers Association, which later became known as the UFW.
Using the Antiquities Act, the Chavez monument will be the fourth national monument Obama has designated. He has made Virginia's Fort Monroe, California's Ford Ord and Colorado's Chimney Rock each national monuments.
