Joining the President, the Chavez family and thousands of visitors in Keene will be Davis consultant Dennis J. Dahlin, landscape architect for the Cesar Chavez Foundation, according to a news release.

A focal point of the national monument is the Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Garden, the final resting place of the labor leader and humanitarian.

Dahlin, president of the Davis design firm Dahlin and Essex, was selected by the Chavez family to design the memorial.

The design process included four years of meetings (and some memorable family celebrations) to build trust and understanding of sensitive design issues. Dahlin worked with Cesar’s widow Helen, his brother Richard, other family members, and Foundation staff to reflect the environmental values and cultural heritage of this important national figure. The landscape architect directed the design team for the Memorial Garden and Visitor Center, which is also included in the national monument, and collaborated with artists on sculpture and other art in the memorial design.

As a setting for personal reflection and cultural events, the garden has become a major landmark and place of pilgrimage for Latinos, Native Americans, and other visitors.

In keeping with the Southwestern campo santo tradition, the memorial was planned as a place of celebration as well as contemplation. With its thick masonry perimeter walls, the garden emulates early Mission gardens. The traditional design emphasizes familiar symbolism in keeping with Cesar’s preferences, so that farm workers and recent immigrants feel welcome and respected.

Durable materials were chosen to express the rough-hewn simplicity of the labor leader’s life. Arbors and garden gates were constructed of recycled redwood, and volunteers collected local fieldstone for garden walls.

Cultural sensitivity was a critical part of the project. Garden niches display statuary selected by the Chavez family. The United Farm Workers eagle logo was incorporated into the paving of the garden, and the design is repeated in sculpture, metal railings, and other garden features.Raised beds of the ‘Cesar Chavez’ rose flank the grave site, and grapes are prominently featured because of their key role in the farm worker movement. Granite panels mounted on garden walls contain inspirational Chavez quotations in Spanish and English.

The famous farm worker march from Delano to Sacramento is commemorated with a bas-relief sculpture, and the associated fountain honors the five martyrs of the farm worker movement, according to the news release.

Even before gaining national monument status, the garden has drawn thousands of visitors to the site to celebrate weddings, concerts and Dia de los Muertos.

In late March, Dahlin leads students and other volunteers at the Memorial Garden for the Cesar Chavez Day of Service. This continues a personal tradition dating back to graduate school in the 1970s at UC Berkeley, when Dahlin worked as a volunteer for the United Farm Workers.