Delano is the historic farming town in central California that the late Cesar Chavez called home. It is known as the cradle of Latino civil rights and social justice movements and the home-base of the United Farmworkers Union. But now, it is also home to two prisons and growing gang violence, meaning the town has turned into a place that is far from sacred.

As part of our series “Divided States: Efforts to Pull Together When Things Fall Apart,” reporter Frank Rojas brings us a profile of the farming town through conversations with his mom and grandparents about how they used to know Delano, and what’s becoming of it today …