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Rep. Kaptur praises President Obama
for establishing César Chávez National Monument
Oct. 8, 2012: Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur today praised President
Barack Obama for his decisive action in establishing the
César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, Calif.
“President Obama deserves credit for honoring the eternal
contribution that César Chávez made to America,” said
Congresswoman Kaptur (OH-9).
Seńor Chávez was the founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW)
movement, which organized farmworkers who were seeking justice
and a better life for their families.
“César Chávez embodied the best ideals of America,” said Kaptur.
“He grew up in poverty and attended 38 schools in just eight
years as his family kept moving, looking for work wherever they
could find it.
“Guided by his faith and sustained by his courage in the face of
oppression, César Chávez literally changed a nation and created
better lives for thousands of farmworker families.”
President Obama, in proclaiming the UFW headquarters at Nuestra
Seńora Reina de la Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace) a national
monument, referred to Seńor Chávez as “one of the most revered
civil rights leaders in the history of the United States.”
La Paz, said President Obama, was “a place where he and other
farm worker leaders strategized and reflected on challenges the
union was facing, celebrated victories and mourned losses, and
watched the union endure and modernize.”
At La Paz, for instance, leaders of the farmworker movement
celebrated passage of California’s Agricultural Labor Relations
Act of 1975, which had been opposed by Republican Governor
Ronald Reagan but supported by his Democratic successor, Jerry
Brown.
The National Park Service will manage the new national monument
and will develop a management plan to ensure that it preserves
the work and legacy of César Estrada Chávez.
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