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First Lady visits Forty Acres on Cesar Chavez’s birthday

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Dr. Jill Biden honoring a man who spent his life serving others as 1,000s of farm workers are vaccinated where the union began in Delano—250 more workers getting shots on Cesar Chavez’s March 31 birthday

Delano, Calif.—Dr. Jill Biden honors a man who dedicated his life to serving others by spending Cesar Chavez’s birthday, Wednesday, March 31, at the historic “Forty Acres” property where the union began outside Delano and where thousands of farm workers are being vaccinated against COVID-19. Dr. Biden will participate as another 250 workers get vaccinated on Wednesday. Vaccination clinics there have administered about 1,100 shots each weekend over the previous three weeks in March through a partnership between the Cesar Chavez Foundation (which owns and manages the Forty Acres), United Farm Workers, UFW Foundation, Kern County Latino COVID-19 Task Force, Kern County and Kern Medical Center.

The Chavez foundation’s network of Spanish- and English-language radio stations has encouraged farm workers to call the bilingual toll free call centers of UFW Foundation and the Latino COVID-19 task force for appointments to get their shots. They are administered at the Forty Acres by staff from Kern Medical Center that handles check-in and administration.

Vaccinations are open to all farm workers 18 years and older at no charge and regardless of immigration status. No health insurance or doctor’s order is required.

The First Lady will be greeted and meet at the Forty Acres with farm worker movement leaders, farm workers, Chavez family members and staff and volunteers who have been organizing the vaccinations throughout the month of March.

Agricultural workers have turned to the Forty Acres with their problems since the 1960s. The 40-acre grounds include the spacious Reuther Hall where medical personnel set up shop. Workers and other Latinos have regularly visited the Forty Acres during the pandemic for distribution of large quantities of emergency food and face masks.

An adobe-brick former co-op service station at the entrance to the complex is where Cesar Chavez fasted for 25 days to rededicate the UFW to nonviolence and where he was joined by Senator Robert F. Kennedy when the fast ended on March 10, 1968. “It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life,” Chavez said in a statement read for him because he was so weak.

Dr. Biden will visit that structure, which includes a large storeroom displaying photos of the 1965-1970 Delano grape strike and the small restored room where Chavez fasted in 1968. The Forty Acres was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 2008.

Dr. Biden will also meet with farm workers. Farm labor issues have evolved over time, but today coalesce around the UFW- and UFW Foundation-sponsored Farm Workforce Modernization Act letting immigrant field laborers earn legal status and a path to citizenship by continuing to work in agriculture, which President Biden strongly backs.

“Just as farm worker issues have evolved through the years—and our movement with them—it is powerful to see historic sites such as Forty Acres evolving with new purposes,” said United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero. “It’s also heartening when people in positions of power take the time to meet with and understand farm workers and the barriers they face. Most urgent for them now is immigration justice and the path forward with the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.”

“We are honored by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s visit to the Cesar Chavez Day vaccination event in Delano,” said UFW Foundation Executive Director Diana Tellefson Torres. “Farm workers have put their lives at risk during the pandemic to feed this nation and they want protection from COVID-19. Through partnerships like the one at the Forty Acres, we’ve been able to provide thousands of farm workers access to vaccines. We will continue to work with the Biden Administration to ensure that life-saving vaccines reach farm workers throughout the country.” 

“For us, the Forty Acres is sacred ground,” said Cesar Chavez Foundation President Paul F. Chavez. “It was the first permanent home for our movement and where my father fasted for 25 days in 1968, calling on all of us to dedicate ourselves to serving others. So what better way to keep my dad’s legacy alive today than by vaccinating farm workers here at the Forty Acres? What more fitting way for Dr. Biden to honor him than by taking part in helping protect farm workers who have suffered so disproportionately from COVID-19?”

Some 63 miles away, southeast of Bakersfield at the Tehachapi Mountain town of Keene, is the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument where Chavez lived and labored his last quarter century, and where he is buried with his wife, Helen. It is the 398th unit of the National Park Service and administered in partnership by the park service and the National Chavez Center, part of the Cesar Chavez Foundation.

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President Biden’s Oval Office displaying Cesar Chavez bust

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Cesar Chavez Foundation sends sculpture to White House from Cesar E. Chavez National Monument

 

Keene, Calif.—A bronze bust of civil rights and farm labor leader Cesar Chavez is on display in President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Oval Office. The 9” by 22” bronze sculpture on a granite pedestal by artist Paul A. Suarez had been on display in the Visitor Center of the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument, the 398th unit of the National Park Service (NPS). This is where Chavez lived and labored his last quarter century and where he is buried alongside his wife, Helen, in the Tehachapi Mountain town of Keene, Calif. southeast of Bakersfield.

 

The President-elect’s transition team requested the artwork for the Oval Office and it was shipped to the White House by the Cesar Chavez Foundation, which through its arm, the National Chavez Center (NCC), helps administer the national monument in a partnership with the park service.

 

“Placing a bust of my father in the Oval Office symbolizes the hopeful new day that is dawning for our nation,” said Paul F. Chavez, Chavez’s middle son and president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation. “That isn’t just because it honors my dad, but more importantly because it represents faith and empowerment for an entire people on whose behalf he fought and sacrificed.”

 

“The most important quality about Cesar Chavez I wanted to convey with this sculpture was his compassion,” affirmed the artist, Paul Suarez. “It was created 25 years ago, relying heavily on research and input from people who were close to him.”

 

The historic Keene property, encompassing 187 acres, is managed collaboratively by the National Chavez Center and National Park Service. It includes three acres NCC donated to the park service to create the national monument when it was dedicated by President Obama during a ceremony in 2012. The Cesar Chavez Foundation and United Farm Workers are also headquartered on the grounds.

 

Suarez, 62, is a native of the west Central Valley farm town of Hanford, Calif. who now resides with his family in Tennessee. Self-taught, he has worked in bronze and stone as well as painted on canvas.

Students from the Salandini Villa Si Se Puede Learning Center present a Cesar Chavez Day play

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Every year students from Si Se Puede Learning Centers across California and the Southwest choose a service learning project in honor of Cesar Chavez Day. Students from Salandini Villa Apartments in Parlier, Calif. chose to reenact a play inspired by Cesar Chavez. They spent months rehearsing their lines and building a set and props in preparation for their big performance. Sadly, due to the coronavirus outbreak all in-person programs were canceled. However, the show must go on! Enjoy an animation version of their production.

 

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Ybarra Village, An Affordable Housing Development Near Completion, Set to Achieve LEED for Homes Gold Certification

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Ybarra Village, a joint effort by the Cesar Chavez Foundation and New Directions for Veterans (NDVets), is a new affordable housing community development in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. Set to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification, the residential community will feature 64 units as well as on-site social service programs for veterans provided by NDVets. Thirty six units will be reserved for homeless veterans, some with special needs, and 27 will be designated for seniors with a preference for senior veterans.

“The LEED Gold Certification reinforces our commitment to inspiring and transforming communities in a way that promotes sustainability,” said Alfredo Izmajtovich, Executive Vice President of Housing and Economic Development for the Cesar Chavez Foundation. “We are proud to work with New Directions for Veterans in building sustainable and affordable living spaces for veterans in need of housing. We are setting the bar for what can be achieved both individually and community wide.”

Ybarra Village will provide a number of sustainable building methods in order to promote sustainability as well as result in lower utility bills for residents.  Water efficiency will be observed in the properties’ planned landscaping which will include an efficient irrigation system for a variety of drought tolerant plants and tree species that require low water and low maintenance needs, in addition to a shut-off valve, sub-metering for the irrigation system, drip irrigation for 50% of planning beds, timer or controller for each water area, pressure-regulating devices and moisture sensor or rain delay controllers.  In the interior units, water conservation will be achieved by the installation of efficient plumbing fixtures including low flow toilets, shower heads and faucets in both kitchens and bathrooms.  Additionally, all kitchens will have Energy Star dishwashing machines that will use less than 6.0 gallons per cycle.

Energy efficiency will be observed by a number of practices including the use of a high efficiency HVAC system, light fixtures and the use of rooftop solar water photovoltaic panels which will produce solar thermal panels which will pre-heat water for the domestic hot water system.  Energy efficient washing and drying machines will be installed in the laundry rooms.  The units which also include energy efficiency appliances including refrigerators, dishwashers and stoves.

There are a number of areas designated for residents’ use including two ample outdoor courtyards with tables and benches and a barbeque grill for group gatherings or individual use to encourage residents to spend time outdoors.  Additionally, the property includes a large community room, leasing office and office spaces for case management and resident services staff.   Ybarra Village will provide 53 parking spaces for resident use and service staff and a number of electric vehicle “EV- ready” chargers as well as 64 resident bicycle parking racks.

The property’s location is centrally located in the West Adams district of Los Angeles.  The amenity-rich neighborhood is within walking distance of grocery stores, shops, restaurants, schools and public transportation including Metro Buses and the Expo Line.

New residents will receive basic operations and training including a one-hour walkthrough of all features within their units so they can learn about the new sustainable LEED building and the many environmental benefits of Ybarra Village.

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Cesar Chavez Grandson at Dedication in Salinas of Plaque Where Chavez Was Jailed in 1970

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A bronze plaque was dedicated Tuesday, December 4 in Salinas outside the Old Monterey County Jail, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 because of its link with the incarceration there of Cesar Chavez on Dec. 4, 1970. He had disobeyed a rural judge’s injunction against the boycott of a huge Salinas Valley vegetable grower. As he was being led away in the Salinas courtroom after the judge ordered him to jail, Chavez defiantly said, “Boycott the hell out of them.” After 20 days, on Christmas Eve, he was ordered set free by the California Supreme Court, which later found the injunction unconstitutional. Coretta Scott King and Ethel Kennedy, widows of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, visited him at the jail.

“The lessons learned nearly 50 years apply today,” said Andres Chavez, 24, a Chavez grandson representing the Chavez family and Cesar Chavez Foundation at the plaque unveiling ceremony in front of the old jail. “It is my hope that this plaque serves as a source of inspiration and a call to action to be courageous and to always stand on the right side of history, whether it be resisting the separation of families or continuing to support the farm workers’ right to organize.”

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PepsiCo Cesar Chavez Latino Scholarship Fund

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The Cesar Chavez Foundation, in partnership with PepsiCo, invite students of Latino descent who are beginning or continuing their studies at higher educational institutions in Arizona and California, to apply for the PepsiCo Cesar Chavez Latino Scholarship Fund. The Scholarship Fund provides $300,000 in scholarship awards to qualified Latino students in Arizona and California regardless of national origin or immigration status in an effort to promote their academic success. It supports 10 scholarships at $5,000 per student annually and will continue to do so until 2021. Scholarships are granted solely based on academic excellence, leadership in extra-curricular activities, commitment to volunteer service in the community and financial need. They are designed to supplement the students’ financial resources from family, government, and other sources. The intent is to fill the gaps our students encounter in financing a college education. The 2019-2020 application cycle is now open. Click here to apply!

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants must demonstrate the following: Academic excellence, leadership in extra-curricular activities, a commitment to volunteer service in the community and financial need.

Applicant must be an incoming or continuing full-time undergraduate student at any education institution for the 2017- 2018 Academic Year.

Applicant must be of Latino descent. Applicant must have a minimum 3.0 GPA.

Scholarship is available to U.S. Citizen, Permanent Legal Resident, Undocumented, DACA or Eligible Non-Citizen (as defined by FAFSA).

Applicant may only receive award once. Applicant’s immediate family members are not eligible for award within 12 calendar months (e.g. siblings, parents, or children).

 

For any questions on this application, please email:  

scholarship@chavezfoundation.org or bfimbres@chavezfoundation.org