A multistory image of labor leader and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta will greet people in downtown Los Angeles following the dedication of a mural on Saturday, May 16.
The dedication ceremony marked Huerta’s first public appearance since allegations surfaced in March that Cesar Chavez, who co-founded United Farm Workers with Huerta in 1966, repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her and other women.
The revelations, first published in The New York Times, have led cities and school districts throughout Southern California to remove Chavez’s name from parks and other monuments and buildings. California lawmakers also renamed Cesar Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day.
Show Caption
1 of 4
United Farm Workers leader Dolores Huerta, center, leads a rally in San Francisco’s Mission District in this 1988 file photo (File photo Court Mast, The Associated Press)
Huerta, who turned 96 in April, spoke during Saturday’s ceremony and called for an end to homophobia and violence against women while lauding gains made by farmworkers through organizing.
She also spoke out against aggressive tactics used by federal immigration enforcement officers.
“We all know what our immigrant community has been under, the way that they have been attacked, the way they’re being detained and all of this horrible stuff that is happening to our immigrant community,” Huerta said, according to NBC 4 Los Angeles.
The Huerta mural, titled “Walking Into History,” adorns the north side of the historic Barclay Hotel on Fourth Street, which today offers affordable housing to extremely poor and formerly homeless tenants.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation owns the hotel. Ged Kenslea, the foundation’s senior communications director, said the mural honors Huerta’s “lifetime of advocacy” in standing up for farmworkers, women and civil rights.
“The powerful voice that she has been able to lend to so many causes over the years is just remarkable,” Kenslea said. “(The mural is) really a love letter to Dolores and thanks for her work over the decades.”
The mural’s artist is Robert Vargas, known for painting murals throughout Los Angeles, including tributes to Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani in little Tokyo and Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela in Boyle Heights.