A community-based nonprofit group is celebrating the purchase the family home of the late civil rights leader Cesar Chavez in the Mayfair neighborhood of east San Jose.
After seeing the Chavez family home listed for sale in May 2022, the organization Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and Empowerment raised funds to purchase it. The hope is for the property to become a community-centered space with a learning center, where residents can learn more about Chavez's mission of non-violent resistance and community organizing.
The Chavez family also offered historical documents and artifacts to feature in the center.
Based in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in east San Jose, Amigos de Guadalupe has provided housing, immigration and family services to residents in the Mayfair neighborhood for the past 10 years.
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Leaders of the organization consider the home to be an essential piece to telling the history of Mexican-American civil rights. The home is also a city landmark and considered to be potentially eligible for the national registry of historic places by the National Park Service, according to the Amigos de Guadalupe Center.
The nonprofit thanks the City of San Jose, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Leo M. Shortino Family Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and John Matthew and Andie Sobrato for their financial support.
Organizers from Amigos de Guadalupe will host a press conference at 11 a.m. Friday at the house, located at 53 Scharff Avenue, to celebrate the acquisition.
