Coachella Will be Part of National Park Service Quest to Honor Cesar Chavez
COACHELLA – Several locations in the Coachella Valley are being considered as possible protected landmarks recognizing Cesar Chavez and the farm labor movement in the Western United States, the National Park Service announced today.
The Parks Service next month will begin a special resource study — ordered by Congress — that will determine national-park sites to be included.
Officials preparing the study will hold eight meetings across California and Arizona, including a stop in Coachella on May 11.
"The study will examine whether there are ways to use these sites to help tell important aspects of the history of the farmworker movement and determine whether there is an appropriate role for the NPS in preserving these sites and stories," according to Martha Crusius, project manager for NPS.
A preliminary list of sites likely to be considered includes the Forty Acres property in Delano, which housed the United Farm Workers headquarters. It also includes the Santa Rita Center in Phoenix, where Chavez conducted 19 days of a 24-day fast designed to protest an Arizona law that limited farmworkers’ rights to conduct strikes and boycotts.
The Coachella sites — and one in Thermal — have been deemed "Tier III" sites, ones that were the locations of important events, but do not rise to the level of national significance, Crusius said. Those sites include Cesar Chavez Elementary School, the David Freedman Ranch, the UFWOC Field Office and Veterans Park in Coachella and Coachella Valley High School in Thermal.
The Coachella public meeting, which will explain the study process, answer questions and seek information to guide the selection process to pick landmarks, will be held at 6:30 p.m. May 11 at Cesar Chavez Elementary School, 49601 Avenida de Oro.
The meetings will also provide technical assistance and preservation techniques to property owners who wish to recognize Chavez’s work, discuss the coordination of a NPS historic trail or tour route as well as educational or community service programs relating to Chavez.