Good morning. Here's a preview of today's show. Below, Texas Standard producer and reporter Sean Saldana writes about his recent feature on César Chávez's legacy, and an important interview that informed it.

When I interviewed Rebecca Flores, a lifelong farm worker organizer who knew César Chávez personally, she said that she once ran into a San Antonio pastor who "called him a prophet" – a characterization she agreed with.

It's an incredibly strong comparison, but when you talk to people who were involved in the farmworkers’ movement in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it absolutely describes how they feel about Chávez: He was a savior.

Before Chávez began his work, farmworkers were among the most ignored people in America. By the time he died, farm work had become culturally relevant in a way that nobody could've fathomed.

Chávez has become so prolific – and his name so regularly invoked in American progressive politics – that his life is usually simplified to a few beats: He was a union leader, he fought for farm workers, and he was Mexican American.

All of those things are correct, but they're not exactly unique. After all, the civil rights era is full of heroic characters who scored massive wins against long odds.

The long version of Chávez’s life – the one that dives into his motivations, his complicated views on immigration and his impact on farm work as an industry – is far more complicated.

You can read and listen to the story here, explore a timeline of Chávez’s life, and listen to an extended interview I did with Chávez biographer Miriam Pawel. She wrote “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez,” a methodical look at the life of America's most influential labor leader. We're also continuing the conversation on Twitter Spaces today at 1 p.m. CT – and I hope you can make it.

Reach out through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or send an email here.

- Sean Saldana
@SeanASaldana

The complicated legacy of César Chávez

Though he died in 1993, Chávez is still perhaps the most famous labor organizer in American history, and a Latino icon of the civil rights era. But as a Mexican American with radical views on immigration, Chávez was a man of many contradictions.

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A faded postcard of the Burleson County courthouse with a Texas Standard sticker, It reads: Tour the 254! A trek through Texas' 254 counties.

The Talk of Texas is running down the state’s entire 254 counties – Anderson to Zavala – with points of interest pulled from the Texas Standard archives.

Is there a can't-miss attraction in your area? Drop us a line and let us know.

Caldwell County

Founded: 1848

County seat: Lockhart

Population: 45,883

Come hungry: While the urban barbecue explosion’s given it a run for the money, Lockhart’s still seen by many as the BBQ capital of Texas, due to historic smokehouses like Black’s Barbecue, Smitty’s and Kreuz Market (which, yes, now serves sauce).

Salad course: Sure, smoked meat’s synonymous with Lockhart. But as our producer Michael Marks noted this spring, a new facility there is on the cutting edge of the vegetable world. The 500,000-square-foot Iron Ox greenhouse in Lockhart relies on robotics and AI to grow and package produce, rain or shine.

One last thing: We recently profiled scenic Burleson County (not to be confused with Burleson, Texas,) which has the town Caldwell as its county seat – which is separate from Caldwell County. Got it?