La Paz - Historic Place

The United Farm Workers Union headquarters at Keene, California, Nuestra Senora Reina de La Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace), has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.  Union founder Cesar Chavez worked and lived there from 1971 until his death in 1993.

Originally a tuberculosis treatment centre, the property was purchased and donated to the Union in 1970.  I was a volunteer at the Union headquarters in Delano in April 1971 when Cesar decided to move the central Union offices to La Paz.

The site wasn't much.  It had an administration building, a small hospital, a dining room, a couple of houses, and a few small cottages.  A few trailers were brought in for married couples. Staff  moved into the hospital; spent a week painting; and set up the Union administration, legal, boycott, accounting, and data processing offices, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Farm Worker Medical Plan.

There wasn't any money for improvements. Cesar was very sensitive about appearing to be benefit personally from the Union, and La Paz was left in a fairly primitive condition. There were vague plans about transforming the property into a retreat for farm workers, but that was for some time in the future.

Today, La Paz is somewhat changed.  The National Chavez Centre includes a visitors centre, conference facilities, a museum, monuments, and gardens.  The walks are paved and there are stone benches.  Nice facilities, perhaps what Cesar would have wanted, but I wonder what the cost has been.  

One thing Cesar was very opposed to was creating a cult of personality around him.  Once, Ben Maddock at the print shop in Delano produced a badge with Cesar's picture on it, framed with "Boycott the Hell Out of Them".  Cesar became angry when he saw it and made Ben destroy the badges.  He said that the Union was about farm workers, and the last thing he wanted was to give the impression of self-promotion.

Cesar Chavez Gravesite

Opponents of the Farm Worker Union liked to claim that Cesar was secretly hiding a fortune away somewhere.  When I knew him, he had a family with six still dependent children.  For someone who had many opportunities to take a well-paying position, he received $231/month.  Today the staff are paid reasonably well; we received either $5 or $15/week, plus meals and accommodation.

I'm not suggesting that there is anything excessive about what's been done at La Paz.  However, when you have nice facilities and start paying staff good salaries, it may be harder to recruit volunteers and maintain grassroots support. The social and economic justice aspect diminishes, and the organization starts looking like a business. There is also some irony in making a modern facility a historic site.