César E. Chávez National Monument,[3] also known as Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz, is a 116-acre (47 ha) U.S. National Monument in Keene, Kern County, California, located about 32 miles away from Bakersfield, California. The property was the headquarters of the United Farm Workers (UFW), and home to César Chávez from the early 1970s until his death in 1993. Chávez's gravesite is located in the property's gardens along with that of his wife, Helen Fabela Chávez. Originally developed as a headquarters and worker housing area for a quarry, it served as a tuberculosis sanitarium (known as Stony Brook Sanitorium) in the early 1900s,[3] until its acquisition by the UFW in the early 1970s.
History
Cesar E. Chavez National Monument was established by PresidentBarack Obama on October 8, 2012, by proclamation under authority of the Antiquities Act. The monument is located among the Tehachapi Mountains in Keene, California, about 32 miles (51 km) southeast of Bakersfield. The property is known as Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz (La Paz), which was designated as a National Historic Landmark along with the monument on October 8, 2012.
The monument is the 398th unit in the National Park System and is managed collaboratively by the National Park Service and the National Chavez Center. The center and members of the Chávez family donated properties of La Paz to the federal government to establish the national monument. Initial funding was provided by the National Park Foundation[4] and the America Latino Heritage Fund.[5] Some of the monument's services and programs are still in development, but a visitor center and memorial garden where Chavez is buried are open to the public.[6][7][8][9] Certain areas of the monument are closed to the public due to the Chávez family still living in La Paz, and members of the UFW still working in the UFW offices located on the property.