Chávez was born in Los Chaves in Valencia County[1] and grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

[2] He served in the Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps and participated in the prosecution of 40 Dachau concentration camp guards.

[3] The U.S. Army awarded Colonel Chavez a bronze star medal for his service prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

[4] He was appointed to the judgeship of the Puerto Rico District by President Harry S. Truman and served from 1947 to 1950.

[1] He worked in private practice in Santa Fe until Governor Burroughs appointed him to the New Mexico Supreme Court in 1959.