Chris's Genealogy Journey: May 5th - Cesar Chavez National Monument

Entrance to the Cesar Chavez National Monument

Well, I’m off. I left Oakland at 10:30 on Thursday May 4^th – just one day after my final design review committee meeting and planning commission hearing for the City of Oakland. I enjoyed serving on the planning commission with a great group of fellow commissioners, but I was ready for my second term to end, so I could start this trip.

Day one of my genealogy journey was uneventful. I drove highway 5 to a RV “park” in Lost Hills which is northeast of Bakersfield. The drive was made enjoyable as I listened to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah – an autobiography of his growing up in South Africa during and after apartheid.

Looking through the entry pergola toward the parking lot
and mountains beyond

This morning I left Lost Hills at 7:30 heading east on 46. A few miles beyond Bakersfield I saw a sign to Cesar Chavez National Monument and decided to go see it. I learned about this new “park in progress” by attending a talk at a recent ASLA conference. It is one of the newest additions to our National Park Service having been dedicated by President Barack Obama on October 8, 2012.

Arbor and steps up to the Chavez graves

The LaPaz site is in Keene which is in Kern County in the Tehachapi Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. It was created to interpret Cesar Chavez and the farm worker movement. I arrived before the visitor center opened so toured the site on my own. The site has two components – a newly designed memorial garden where Chavez is buried and an assortment of buildings that housed the activities of the farm workers.

My timing was perfect to see the memorial garden because it is filled with a variety of roses – climbing, shrub and ground cover roses, and all were in bloom. It is a glorious display – both visually and with a subtle fragrance. The new landscape is richly detailed and nicely integrated with native oaks and rock outcrops. It includes one traditional Spanish-style fountain and a sculpture/fountain at the Chavez graves.

Headstones for Cesar Estrada and Helen Fabela Chavez

As I wandered through the site I found residential buildings, a community kitchen/meeting room, and one very long two-story building that may have housed farm workers. The monument is so new that none of the buildings have interpretive signage to explain how they were used and since I left before the visitor center opened I cannot tell you what function each building had.

Sculpture/Fountain at the graves

Here is a link the National Park Service website if you want to learn more about La Paz, Cesar E. Chavez or the farm worker movement: https://www.nps.gov/cech/index.htm

Tonight I am in Needles – right on the Arizona border. I found several RV sites along the Colorado River. I can see the river from my motorhome but it is still 83 degrees with my AC going full blast at 8:30 PM.