César Estrada Chávez (March 31, 1927 - April 23, 1993) was a Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union laborers. His birthday has become César Chávez Day, a state holiday in eight U.S More... states. Many parks, cultural centers, libraries, schools, and streets have been named in his honor in cities across the United States. Later in life, education became César?s focus. The walls of his office in Keene, California (United Farm Worker headquarters) were lined with hundreds of books ranging in subject from philosophy, economics, cooperatives, and unions, to biographies of Gandhi and the Kennedys. He was a vegan. He is buried at 2900 Woodford Tehachapi Road in the Keene community of unincorporated Kern County, California . There is a portrait of him in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.