It’s a new way to honor Chavez’s message of service. The 25 Americorps volunteers from New Jersey, Missouri, Iowa and throughout California met last week for training at the National Chavez Center in this tiny town. Then they will leave these historic grounds — where the founder of the United Farm Workers is buried — to run after-school centers in California, Texas and New Mexico.

"This is the most humbling thing I’ve ever been a part of. A movement started here. A revolution," said Samantha Stangl, 22. The recent University of Iowa graduate studied social work and will head to the bordertown of Pharr, Tex., where she will run an after-school program for an affordable housing complex for workers.

Photo Credit: Rick Tejada-Flores

"My father always believed that ordinary people could do extraordinary things," said Paul Chavez, the labor leader’s son. "These young people will still build a legacy that my father would be proud of."

Chavez’s legacy includes helping form the UFW, fighting to ban the use of the back-breaking equipment and a 36-day fast during a boycott of grape growers who used deadly pesticides.

For many of the students interested in working in education and able to give a year of service in exchange for housing and a scholarship the location of the training was a big draw.

"He’s a social justice hero of mine," said Charles Miller, 24, of New Jersey. "To read and study about the farm worker movement is one thing, but to be in the area where it all took place is almost overwhelming."

Here, Chavez’s office sits preserved, a room of texts, family photos and religious artifacts. Here, union members learned economics and contract negotiations. Here, Chavez is buried in a rose garden under a simple headstone.

"His wish was to be buried in the gardens. And he was a simple man, so we have a simple memorial," Paul Chavez said.

Paul Chavez said that when his father was looking for a place to serve as the UFW headquarters, he wanted a location close to agriculture, but set away from the hustle and bustle. He found it on 187 acres dotted with oaks at the foot of the Tehachapi Mountains. The grounds were dedicated as the National Chavez Center in 2004, and its visitors center with art exhibitions and a UFW store with union memorabilia opened to the public.

The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, which runs the center, is seeking federal recognition as a historic landmark. But Paul Chavez said preserving his father’s legacy was only one aspect. Financial survival was a concern, too.

"We had to prepare for people who don’t have emotional ties to this place," Paul Chavez said. Thus, a remodeled 1920s hacienda-style building that once housed a children’s tuberculosis hospital was opened to groups for retreats and for private events such as weddings. Another phase to add housing and develop archives is planned.

The conference center, named Villa La Paz, was commemorated in June and has a cafe, banquet hall and meeting rooms. Here, the Americorps students attended study sessions.

"It started as a place to train farmworkers to run a union but now we can spread out to meet other needs," said Paul Chavez, who directs the conference center.

"We’re not in the fields. Some of us aren’t even working in rural areas," Miller said, who will spend a second year working at an affordable housing complex in Hollister, Calif.

"But we’re still about giving people opportunities. We’re still about empowering others."

Online: National Chavez Center: www.nationalchavezcenter.org