Cesar Chavez’s legacy lives on in Biden’s staff, Oval Office

White House Intergovernmental Affairs director Julie Chavez Rodriguez stands outside the White House, Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Washington. The granddaughter of the late Latino labor activist Cesar Chavez, Rodriguez advises the president and helps state, local and tribal governments with their federal government needs. When Biden spruced up the Oval Office, he gave Cesar Chavez's bust a prominent place among family photographs on a desk behind him. People who know Rodriguez say she's a humble public servant. Her grandfather's activism helped create the United Farm Workers union. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) White House Intergovernmental Affairs director Julie Chavez Rodriguez stands outside the White House, Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Washington. The granddaughter of the late Latino labor activist Cesar Chavez, Rodriguez advises the president and helps state, local and tribal governments with their federal government needs. When Biden spruced up the Oval Office, he gave Cesar Chavez's bust a prominent place among family photographs on a desk behind him. People who know Rodriguez say she's a humble public servant. Her grandfather's activism helped create the United Farm Workers union. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE / Associated Press June 28, 2021 6 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – When President Barack Obama flew to California to dedicate a national monument to Latino labor leader Cesar Chavez nearly a decade ago, a group of the activist’s relatives were invited to pose for photos with the president.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Chavez’s granddaughter, hung back. As a member of Obama’s staff, she had traveled with the official party to the event, but did not want to call attention to herself.

Only when Obama’s senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, insisted did Rodriguez reluctantly step forward, barely making it into the frame.

“I said, ‘Julie, you have to be up there with your family,'” said Jarrett, who was Rodriguez’s boss in the White House Office of Public Engagement. “And she said, ‘No, I’m staff today.'”

White House staffers are often of a type, hard-charging strivers who crave their own sliver of the limelight or even trade on a famous name. Rodriguez is a clear exception as she begins a second tour serving a president, this time as director of intergovernmental affairs for Joe Biden.