Mar 31, 2009 8:13 pm US/Pacific
San Jose Creates Cesar Chavez Walking Tour
SAN JOSE (CBS 5 / KCBS) ―
The San Jose City Council unanimously approved a walkway to honor civil rights leader Cesar Chavez. The three-mile walking tour begins in a downtown park named after the late labor leader.
The tour starts in Chavez Park, across from the Fairmont Hotel in Downtown and ends at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in East San Jose. That was the site of an old Safeway supermarket where a very grape boycott was launched to protest the working conditions of farm workers.
Among the other stops in the tour include Chavez's boyhood home on Sharff Avenue and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which was the scene of meetings and Masses during the struggle to organize farm workers. There are a total of seven landmarks on the walking tour.
Mayor Chuck Reed is one of the people who came up with the idea of a memorial walk.
"I thought there were more things that we could do here in San Jose because Cesar is really one of our hometown heroes who made it really big worldwide, and we ought to do more to honor his memory," said Reed.
Among the family members at last week's city council hearing, was Rudy Chavez Medina, the nephew of the labor leader.
"Cesar was humble, so lets keep it simple, and we can build on all our technology and everything else in later phases, but I think keeping it simple is the way Cesar would have wanted it," said Medina.
The inaugural walk took place last Saturday.
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