SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Navy is considering naming a cargo ship that's being built after farmworker activist Cesar Chavez.
James Gill, a spokesman for General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, said Monday the company suggested the name to honor its mostly Hispanic work force and the mostly Hispanic neighborhood, Barrio Logan, where the boat builder is located.
The other 13 cargo ships built by NASSCO for the Navy have been named after such notable Americans as explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and famed aviator Amelia Earhart.
Chavez would be the first Mexican American in that group. He is credited with helping to secure a U.S. law that recognized farmworkers' rights to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining. Chavez died in 1993 at the age of 66.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
