High-quality, affordable housing community in Montebello named for pioneering labor-community leader J.J. Rodriguez. Groundbreaking ceremony: June 2nd, 2023.
*photo credit: E Thayer, JJ’s Granddaughter.
Vista de J.J. Rodriguez, a new affordable housing community in Montebello with 63 units for families, including supportive units for survivors of domestic violence, will be dedicated on Friday, June 2 by the Cesar Chavez Foundation in partnership with the Downtown Women’s Center, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit serving and empowering currently and formerly homeless women. It is named for a pioneering Los Angeles labor and community leader who was a key colleague and supporter of civil rights and farm labor leader Cesar Chavez dating back to the 1950s.
“We’re pleased to break ground on our first affordable housing community in Montebello to address the needs of Latinos and working families,” said Chavez Foundation President Paul F. Chavez. “It’s fitting to name this property after J.J. Rodriguez, a dedicated veteran activist in Los Angeles who was an early champion of the Chicano movement.”
Keeping with the tradition of the farm worker movement, the project memorializes the late J.J. Rodriguez’s lifetime of advocacy for social, labor, and civil rights. He began organizing City of Vernon packinghouse workers in 1928 and helped build their long-dominant packinghouse workers’ union. During the 1950s, Rodriguez was an important activist and leader in Los Angeles with Cesar Chavez in the Community Service Organization Latino civil rights group. For years, he served as president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. When Rodriguez died in 1991, Cesar eulogized his friend as a “pioneering trade unionist who fought many early battles of the Chicano movement.”
August 2024 Update: Vista de J.J. Rodriguez official web site. https://www.vistajjapartments.com/
2025 Update: City of Montebello Build Time Lapse
JJ’s family. Son, daughter, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren.
More information:
Helen Holguin’s report to UFCW 770 on Vista de JJ Rodriguez
Chavez Foundation short video clip via Facebook
Chavez Foundation breaks ground on affordable housing complex in Montebello via Chavez Foundation