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Rep. Kaptur praises President Obama for establishing César Chávez National Monument
Oct. 8, 2012: Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur today praised President Barack Obama for his decisive action in establishing the César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, Calif.
“President Obama deserves credit for honoring the eternal contribution that César Chávez made to America,” said Congresswoman Kaptur (OH-9).
Seńor Chávez was the founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement, which organized farmworkers who were seeking justice and a better life for their families.
“César Chávez embodied the best ideals of America,” said Kaptur. “He grew up in poverty and attended 38 schools in just eight years as his family kept moving, looking for work wherever they could find it.
“Guided by his faith and sustained by his courage in the face of oppression, César Chávez literally changed a nation and created better lives for thousands of farmworker families.”
President Obama, in proclaiming the UFW headquarters at Nuestra Seńora Reina de la Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace) a national monument, referred to Seńor Chávez as “one of the most revered civil rights leaders in the history of the United States.”
La Paz, said President Obama, was “a place where he and other farm worker leaders strategized and reflected on challenges the union was facing, celebrated victories and mourned losses, and watched the union endure and modernize.”
At La Paz, for instance, leaders of the farmworker movement celebrated passage of California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which had been opposed by Republican Governor Ronald Reagan but supported by his Democratic successor, Jerry Brown.
The National Park Service will manage the new national monument and will develop a management plan to ensure that it preserves the work and legacy of César Estrada Chávez.
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