Santa Rita Center, or Santa Rita Hall, is an unoccupied church hall at 10th Street and Hadley Roads, which was placed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register in October 2007, which has the same eligibility criteria as the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of three church halls stemming from the three chapels of the Historic Sacred Heart Church. It was purchased by the Chicanos Por La Causa, non-profit organisation, in 2004 for $71,000.
Santa Rita Hall
Cesario Estrada Chavez was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union. Ideologically, his worldview combined leftist politics with Catholic social teachings.
Chavez in 1979
In the early 1950s, Chavez was introduced to the ideas of nonviolent protest advocated by Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Dolores Huerta (pictured in 2016) was a key ally of Chavez's in his formation of the NFWA.
Cesar Chavez (center) on a march from the Mexican border to Sacramento with United Farm Workers members in Redondo Beach, California
