Park Service is identifying sites significant to labor leader Cesar Chavez
by CLAUDIA MELENDEZ SALINAS,
santacruzsentinel.com
April 22nd 2011 1:30 AM
Preservationists interested in saving the vacant West Alisal Street jail in
Salinas are hoping a federal study recommends that the building where labor
leader Cesar Chavez was detained in 1970 becomes part of the national park
system.
In 2008, Congress approved legislation that authorized the Cesar E. Chevez
Study, which allows the Secretary of the Interior to survey sites with
significance in the life of the labor leader and the farmworker movement. The
survey's goal is to determine if sites are eligible to become part of the
national park system and to consider preserving them and opening them to the
public. The final survey report is expected in November.
As part of the study, the National Park Service will host a community meeting
in Salinas next month.
Chavez is widely acknowledged as one of the most significant Latino leaders in
U.S. history. During the 1960s and '70s, he led a movement in which
impoverished farmworkers stood up to agribusiness to improve wages and working
conditions.
The Salinas Valley figures prominently in the life of Chavez, who led a
bruising United Farm Workers strike against lettuce growers.
For two weeks in December 1970, Chavez was held in the Monterey County Jail in
Salinas for refusing to obey a court order to stop a union boycott against
grower Bud Antle.
Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., and Ethel Kennedy, widow
of Robert Kennedy, visited the jailed labor leader.
In 2002,
Monterey County administrators planned to demolish the jail, but historical
preservationists sued. The jail, now surrounded by chain link fence, was
registered in the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park
Service in 2004.
County administrators offered a proposal in 2009 that would have demolished
most of the building. That plan would have preserved only a portion of the Old
Jail and incorporated a historical display about Chavez.
Preservationists blocked that plan, too.
"It was the very first historical site for Cesar Chavez," said architect
Salvador Muñoz, who has fought to preserve the jail.
"That case became an example of how a historical site should be preserved."
Having the National Park Service come to Salinas will push efforts to transform
the area into a historical district, Muñoz said.
"It's good news. Any site that becomes a historical site and is blessed by the
National Parks becomes very unique. Specially for Salinas, we need tourism."
Unused since the late 70s, the jail has severely deteriorated. The county is
weatherizing the roof over what was once the administration portion of the
building.
Yaz Emrani, director of Monterey County Public Works, said the facelift --
including the roofing project and a facade cleaning -- could take until the end
of the year to complete.
"There's two parts to the project: We have to look at the conditions and draw a
plan, it requires careful consideration," Emrani said.
Mark Norris, former president of the Architectural Heritage Association of
Monterey County, is hoping the much needed funding to restore the jail will
come in the wake of the study.
The National Park Service is conducting similar meetings in other California
cities, including San Jose, Delano and Oxnard. Meetings are planned for Yuma,
Ariz., and Phoenix. A preliminary report is expected by October and final
report a month later.
The survey is not limited to buildings, but could also include trails or any
other marker that would help tell the story of the farmworkers movement, said
project manager Martha Crusius.
"The National Park Service offers technical assistance for current owners, to
draw up historic trails or tour loops so people can go to different places
throughout the Salinas Valley to learn about the farmworkers movement," Crusius
said. "It could be a range of different things."
Original Page: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/rss/ci_17906327?source=rss
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