This is the first in a series of stories about our four new CSUB Alumni Association board members.
Andres Chavez is carrying on the work of his paternal grandfather in new and expanding ways at the Cesar Chavez Foundation, including through affordable housing investment, academic initiatives and network radio broadcasting.
His main focus these days as director of strategic initiatives is the future launch of Chavez Community Capital, a social investment fund that will put money into community development projects throughout the southwest United States.
He’s also transitioning a radio show he hosts with fellow CSUB Alumni Association board member Matt Muñoz into a podcast focused on politics, culture, human-interest stories and editorializing on issues of the day.
Chavez, 27, grew up in Keene and graduated from Tehachapi High School before coming to CSUB for his bachelor’s degree in public administration, which he earned in 2016. At CSUB he was a peer mentor for first-year students, organized immigration reform rallies, and helped coordinate Hispanic Heritage Month observances.
“If I had gone away, I don’t know that I would have done as well as I did at CSUB,” Chavez said of staying close to home. “I really came to love the campus, I really got involved on campus, and I was able to form connections with professors that I wouldn’t have otherwise formed.”
At the end of his time at CSUB, Chavez was political director for Emilio Huerta’s unsuccessful run for the 21st Congressional District seat. He went on to work at Sacramento State helping establish a high school equivalency program for farmworkers and then consulted for the California Exposition and State Fair.
In August 2017, Chavez took up his dad’s offer to come work at the Cesar Chavez Foundation. His father is Paul Chavez, Cesar’s middle son and the foundation’s president.
As a young boy, Andres had worked there washing dishes in the community kitchen in exchange for cheeseburgers and moved up to stuffing envelopes and weed whacking the grounds. Just before starting school at CSUB, Chavez became more immersed in foundation operations and interested in working there full-time one day.
“We were looking at the entire organization, where we want to be in 10 years, but it also really demonstrated the needs our communities have – lack of capital, education for kids, affordable housing – and the opportunity we have (to help,)” Chavez said. “… That really kicked off my intellectual curiosity.”
A major project he worked on this year was running a six-week COVID-19 vaccine clinic in partnership with the United Farm Workers, UFW Foundation, Kern Medical and the Kern County COVID-19 Latino Task Force. The effort received national attention when First Lady Jill Biden visited the clinic and participated in a Day of Service for Cesar Chavez Day on March 31.
On the CSUB Alumni Association board, Chavez said he’ll be looking at ways to build on its “great work to date,” including with whom it engages.
“The CSUB campus is very brown,” Chavez said, “and we need to engage more people who look like me.”
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