Site of Chavez Home to Become Landmark

Civic leaders on Tuesdaywill designate a La Colonia site where Cesar Chavez lived as a boy a historical landmark in a celebration meant to underscore Oxnard’s agrarian history and celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Chavez, the farm labor organizer who become one of this century’s most prominent labor leaders, lived in a shed on Garfield Avenue in La Colonia for a brief period during his childhood. The shed is gone, but leaders here have for years talked of turning the yard where he lived into a historical landmark. A family now rents a home on the property.

“It’s important, because we started as an agrarian city,” City Councilman John Zaragoza said. “And we had a man who struggled for the cause of labor and human rights. We’re part of that history.”

The ceremony at 452 N. Garfield Ave. is open to the public and begins at noon. For information, call Oxnard’s Cultural and Artistic Services Program at 385-8147.