National Chavez Center

We don’t need perfect political systems; we need perfect participation. Cesar Chavez It's Election Day! Be the driving force for positive change! Your Voice, Your Power, Your Vote. #nationalchavezcenter

"Itliong’s story is just one of many that have often gone overlooked in education about American history"

Feliz Día de los Muertos! Today, we celebrate our heritage and honor the stories of our ancestors. Every year we remember five martyrs who gave their lives for the rights of others. During the farm worker movement, Nan Freeman, Nagi Daifallah, Juan de la Cruz, Rufino Contreras, and Rene Lopez gave the ultimate sacrifice to improve the lives of farm workers. Did you know there is a memorial for these martyrs? Cesar established Martyr's Rock on the grounds of the National Chavez Center in Keene, CA. It consists of a large outcropping of boulders on top of which Cesar had erected in metal a Christian Cross, a Star of David and a Muslim crescent moonrepresenting the faiths of the union’s five martyrs.

#FlashbackFriday with Marc Grossman. Marc Grossman served as Cesar’s longtime press secretary, speech writer and personal aide and this month he shared the stories behind some of the most iconic images of Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez is hauled into Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas in December 1970 by a local judge for violating an injunction against boycotting lettuce produced by a huge vegetable grower. Boycott the hell out of ‘em, Cesar says as he is led away by ...bailiffs to the Monterey County Jail. Ethel Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, and Coretta Scott King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow, visit him while he is incarcerated. Cesar is treated with much respect by the other inmates. After 20 days, on Christmas Eve the California Supreme Court orders Cesar released. The judge’s injunction is later declared unconstitutional. #nationalchavezcenter See more

As #filipinoheritagemonth nears an end, we highlight Larry Itliong, a member of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. The Filipino members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee led by Larry Itliong, Peter Velasco, Philip Vera Cruz, and Andy Umutan, struck the Delano-area table and wine grape growers in September 1965, thus beginning the five-year-long Delano grape strike. Larry Itliong asked Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Gilbert Padilla, and the mostly Lat...ino members of the National Farm Workers Association to join their vineyard picket lines. There was a debate among the Latino union leaders who only had $78 in the treasury and a different long-term organizing plan. Helen Chavez settled matters by asking, "Are we a union or not?" Cesar, Larry, and others helped ignite much more than the '65 Delano walkouts. It also tackled crippling dilemmas that faced farmers and working-class communities. The original programs and services that were established in the 1960s continue to this day through the Cesar Chavez Foundation. #nationalchavezcenter See more

Don't miss a session and screening of "Song for Cesar, The Movement and The Music."