As we honor César Chávez Day and the life and work of this great leader, I reflect on my personal experiences with the past, present and future opportunities to honor and build upon the legacy Chávez left behind.

In the late 1960s, I joined the grape boycott campaign to force grape growers to sign contracts with the United Farm Workers. As an emboldened teenager, I stood outside a grocery store in Frederick, Maryland, gathering signatures from shoppers who said they would boycott grapes. No wonder César Chávez and his co-leaders, like Dolores Huerta, were so successful. They were able to create a huge movement even though they had little means. This was, and is, a quintessential American story of how ordinary people can accomplish great things.

In the early 2000’s, in my current role as director of the National Parks Conservation Association’s Pacific office, we began working in partnership with Latino leaders such as former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and thousands of our members across the country to incorporate the historically significant achievements of César E. Chávez into our National Park System. This led to House and Senate introduction of the César Chávez Special Resources Study Act in 2007, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2008.

That bipartisan legislation enabled the National Park Service to study the feasibility of creating national park sites related to the story of Chávez and the farmworkers. The draft concluded there are five sites, including "La Paz," the headquarters of the United Farm Workers of America, that were indeed appropriate to include.

Then last October, President Obama designated the La Paz site as the César E. Chávez National Monument — our 398th national park and the first site to honor a contemporary Latino American.

The story of César Chávez and the farmworkers he led is one of sheer will of previously powerless people who truly made an impact in their communities and beyond. Students throughout the world now study César Chávez and his ideas regarding social justice.

A prayer written by Chávez states, "Let us remember those who have died for justice for they have given us life." The words in this prayer rang true at the ceremony as I looked across the sea of faces that included farm workers, The workers would return to the fields with access to potable water, bathrooms and other basic necessities that were withheld until César Chávez’s time.

Creating the César E. Chávez National Monument was an important step toward diversifying our National Park System to reflect our shared heritage. Since then, Interim Superintendent Ruben Andrade has noted a culturally diverse mix of visitors. Students from the nearby César Chávez Elementary school and others visit and learn of the farm workers movement’s legacy, with the National Park Service as their guide. Andrade estimates the number of visitors to the site has tripled since it was declared a monument.

As we celebrate César Chávez Day, let’s take the opportunity to ask Congress to preserve the complete story of movement and its leader. A soon to be released Special Resource Study identified sites significant to Chavez’s life and work including 40 Acres and the Filipino Hall in Delano, California; the 1966 Delano to Sacramento March route and the Santa Rita Center in Phoenix, Arizona. It is time to complete his legacy. Let’s seize this moment with the motto of the United Farm Workers of America: "Si se puede!"

"Yes, we can!"

Ron Sundergill is the Pacific Region Senior Director for the National Parks Conservation Association. He wrote this for this newspaper.