Chávez liked the idea and asked his brother Richard Chávez to convert Cesar’s old station wagon into a mobile chapel. This is how Chávez recalled the role of the mobile altar in an interview for the book by Marshall Ganz, Why David Sometimes Wins: “It was like a shrine with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, some candles, and some flowers. We parked it across from the DiGiorgio gate where we started a vigil that lasted at least two months. People were there day and night.

“The next morning, we distributed a leaflet . . . inviting people to a prayer meeting at the DiGiorgio ranch and made the same announcement on the Spanish radio. People came by the hundreds. We brought loudspeakers and tried to get the people in the camp to come to the mass, but I don’t think more than 10 came out. Most of them were out at the fence looking and seeing a tremendous number of people. They were very impressed. There was also so much confusion; our guys found themselves talking to our members inside the camp for the first time in about three weeks. The next day . . . when the trucks brought the people from the fields to eat at the company mess hall, about eight women decided to come to where we had the vigil instead of going to the mess hall.