National Cesar Chavez Center conference facilities dedicated to Helen Chavez
Dianne Hardisty
Conference and retreat facilities at the National Chavez Center in Keene, Calif., were officially opened on Saturday and dedicated in honor of Helen Chavez, the widow of farm worker advocate and union organizer Cesar Chavez.
The dedication was an ironic and touching honor bestowed on Helen Chavez, who was once a patient at the former Kern County children’s hospital, known as the preventorium, that was transformed into a conference and retreat center. A $2.5 million state heritage grant, as well as donations funded the $6 million project.
The preventorium was part of the county’s tuberculosis sanitarium that operated from the turn of the century until its closure in the 1960s. The discovery of drug treatments eliminated the need to isolate tuberculosis patients in sanitariums. Fragile, or under-weight children, as well as those who had been exposed to tuberculosis often were placed in preventoriums, which were built near sanitariums.
In 1971, Helen Chavez tried to talk her husband, Cesar, out of buying the 187-acre former sanitarium complex from Kern County for his farm workers’ union headquarters. Like other children who had been admitted to the preventorium, Helen Chavez harbored painful memories from her stay, according to her son Paul Chavez, president of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation.
She felt frightened, angry and abused by being removed from her family and placed in the preventorium, Paul Chavez said.
But Cesar Chavez went forward with the property acquisition, transforming it over the next several decades, into the hub of his farm worker organizing effort. After his death in 1993, the complex was renamed the National Chavez Center. It includes a visitor center and memorial gardens, where Cesar Chavez’s remains are buried. Helen Chavez and some family members continue to live on the complex.
Construction of the retreat and conference center, which has been named Villa La Paz, is part of a master planned development of the center. It will eventually include the addition of a chapel and guest lodging.
Conference and retreat facilities at the National Chavez Center in Keene, Calif., were officially opened on Saturday and dedicated in honor of Helen Chavez, the widow of farm worker advocate and union organizer Cesar Chavez.
The dedication was an ironic and touching honor bestowed on Helen Chavez, who was once a patient at the former Kern County children’s hospital, known as the preventorium, that was transformed into a conference and retreat center. A $2.5 million state heritage grant, as well as donations funded the $6 million project.
The preventorium was part of the county’s tuberculosis sanitarium that operated from the turn of the century until its closure in the 1960s. The discovery of drug treatments eliminated the need to isolate tuberculosis patients in sanitariums. Fragile, or under-weight children, as well as those who had been exposed to tuberculosis often were placed in preventoriums, which were built near sanitariums.
In 1971, Helen Chavez tried to talk her husband, Cesar, out of buying the 187-acre former sanitarium complex from Kern County for his farm workers’ union headquarters. Like other children who had been admitted to the preventorium, Helen Chavez harbored painful memories from her stay, according to her son Paul Chavez, president of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation.
She felt frightened, angry and abused by being removed from her family and placed in the preventorium, Paul Chavez said.
But Cesar Chavez went forward with the property acquisition, transforming it over the next several decades, into the hub of his farm worker organizing effort. After his death in 1993, the complex was renamed the National Chavez Center. It includes a visitor center and memorial gardens, where Cesar Chavez’s remains are buried. Helen Chavez and some family members continue to live on the complex.
Construction of the retreat and conference center, which has been named Villa La Paz, is part of a master planned development of the center. It will eventually include the addition of a chapel and guest lodging.