{"id":878133,"date":"2026-06-19T11:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/878133\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T11:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:38:24","slug":"on-the-avenue-that-bears-cesar-chavezs-name-murals-still-honor-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/878133\/","title":{"rendered":"On the avenue that bears C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez’s name, murals still honor him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect when I went to check out the C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez murals on the Eastside avenue that bears his name. <\/p>\n

The thoroughfare is a celebrated showcase for public art, and Ch\u00e1vez was a favored mural subject in Mexican American communities for decades after his death in 1994. But according to a bombshell New York Times investigation in March, Ch\u00e1vez sexually abused minors<\/a>. Since then, other revelations have further tarnished the legacy of the Chicano labor and civil rights leader long considered a secular saint. <\/p>\n

Communities soon removed statues and busts of him and scrubbed his name from streets<\/a>, parks and schools. California lawmakers rebranded C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez Day, a state holiday, as Farmworkers Day<\/a>. Both the city and county of Los Angeles are exploring whether to rename Avenida Cesar E. Chavez, which starts in Chinatown and ends near East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park.<\/p>\n

I have no issue with any of that \u2014 communities should decide who and what they honor. But murals are different. They capture a time and place and speak to a people\u2019s history, aspirations and aesthetics. Whitewashing or altering them because of the sins of their subjects is out of the playbook of despots who erase history or twist it to suit modern-day needs. <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA – March 24: A mural of famous people on Cesar Chavez Ave on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times) 2.<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA – March 24: A mural detail of Robert Kennedy and Cesar Chavez on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the easy way out of grappling with Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s legacy. He meant so much to so many for so long. To cancel him, no matter how depraved his actions against young women, is not the reckoning Mexican Americans need to have about who we lionize and why.<\/p>\n

I expected to see many Ch\u00e1vez murals on Avenida Cesar E. Chavez, with at least some of them gone or diminished. What could they teach us about the power and perils of hero worship in a community that has produced too few figures of Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s stature? <\/p>\n

The first mural that Times photography fellow Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os and I found was outside USA Donuts at Evergreen Avenue in Boyle Heights. With one hand, Ch\u00e1vez waves the flag of the United Farm Workers, the union he co-founded to bring economic justice to the fields of California. His other arm somehow cradles the Virgin Mary, a farmworker and two gang members at the same time. Above this bathetic scene is the word \u201cRescate\u201d \u2014 Rescue.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA – March 24: A mural of Cesar Chavez outside USA Donuts at Evergreen Avenue in Boyle Heightson Tuesday, March 24, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times) (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times) 2.<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA – March 24: A mosaic on Cesar Chavez Ave on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times) (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen this mural and others next to it repeatedly graffitied over the years. But it looked brand new the afternoon we visited. Someone had retouched it.<\/p>\n

No one who got off at the bus stop in front of the mural wanted to talk, so we went inside USA Donut and spoke to John Son, whose family owns the small business. He didn\u2019t know who Ch\u00e1vez was and hadn\u2019t heard about the disturbing disclosures until I filled him in. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be painted over,\u201d Son replied when I asked what should happen to the mural. \u201cHe did bad things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bola\u00f1os and I next walked east toward East Los Angeles, past the All Wars Memorial<\/a>, which honors Mexican American service members killed in action; the Anthony Quinn Library<\/a>, named after the legendary actor whose childhood home was on the site; a high school called Esteban Torres after the longtime member of Congress<\/a>; and American Legion Post 804, dedicated to Medal of Honor recipient Eugene A. Obregon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the avenue named after him, C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez is just another face in the crowd.<\/p>\n

The next mural we found takes up a large wall outside an eye clinic on McDonnell Avenue. The panorama tells the story of Mexicans, including the Aztecs, agricultural labor and people driving on freeways. In the center are small portraits of Quinn, Obregon and other Eastside legends, including Garfield High math teacher Jaime Escalante<\/a> and slain Times columnist Ruben Salazar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Towering over all of them, arms stretched out as if gifting all these heroes to the world, is Ch\u00e1vez. Dolores Huerta, the UFW co-founder who told the New York Times that Ch\u00e1vez raped her<\/a> and that she secretly bore two of his children, is the size of his hand.<\/p>\n

A small plaque lists a phone number and urges visitors to dial it \u201cif you notice damage or vandalism to this mural.\u201d It was disconnected when I called.<\/p>\n

A few blocks away, outside the Centro Maravilla Service Center on Arizona Avenue, stands a different type of mural. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Short Life of John Doe\u201d was painted in 1975 and depicts the transformation of East L.A. from untouched rolling hills to the 1950s. The Red Car line that used to service the area crawls through traffic that includes a Model T and horse-drawn carriages. That segues into a snapshot of the annual Virgin of Guadalupe procession that goes down C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s avenue now, as well as in the decades when it was still called Brooklyn Avenue. <\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA – April 14: A Virgin Mary painting in Boyle Heights on Tuesday, April 14, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times) (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times) 2.<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA – April 14: A mural in Boyle Heights on Tuesday, April 14, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times) (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times) 3.<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA – April 14: A mural on Cesar Chavez Ave on Tuesday, April 14, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times) (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times) 4.<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA – April 14: A mural on Cesar Chavez Ave on Tuesday, April 14, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times) (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

Squint and you\u2019ll see a boy holding a truck emblazoned with a UFW flag at the start and finish of the panorama. The image makes no sense in the mural\u2019s timeline. But it serves as an unwitting rebuke to Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s ultimate place in L.A. \u2014 a speck in a rich tapestry that was around before him and will exist long after. <\/p>\n

On our trek, I saw the Virgin of Guadalupe\u2019s image far more than Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s. While artists kept making him out to be Christ-like, they had more fun with the Mexican Marian apparition, beyond the traditional image of Her in prayer held up by a cherub. She hangs out with Aztec warriors, occupies the shells of old pay phones and even breaks the chains that imprisoned immigrants.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as if the artists knew that even divine figures are human \u2014 which Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s acolytes never understood.<\/p>\n

On the other side of Arizona Avenue, at Maravilla Meat Market, is another mural. Emiliano Zapata\u2019s face floats next to an Aztec pyramid, and a pachuco hangs out with a female Brown Beret. A flaming ear of corn transforms into a crankshaft. In the center of this collage is a giant, stern-faced Ch\u00e1vez. He flies like an avenging angel, holding a candle in one hand and grapes in the other. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most Chicano art piece I\u2019ve been exposed to in my life,\u201d Bola\u00f1os joked. I replied that it was cheesy. All the Ch\u00e1vez murals are. Ch\u00e1vez famously said that he never wanted to have memorials in his name, telling a friend, \u201cStatues are for pigeons to s\u2014 on. If you want to remember me, organize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too many people didn\u2019t listen.<\/p>\n

Our tour ended at Robert Hill Lane Elementary School in Monterey Park, which hosts two murals. In the sappier one, Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s face is inside a sun, like the baby in \u201cTeletubbies,\u201d hanging over a boy and girl in graduation gowns. <\/p>\n

Far more interesting is the one stating that it was designed by the school\u2019s students in 1996.<\/p>\n

A boy and girl stand amid rows of crops and point at a frowning sun as an airplane sprays pesticides. A bunch of grapes wears a gas mask. Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s face is at the bottom, seemingly discarded. The recognizable UFW eagle is perched above him, its head chopped off and a tear in its eye.<\/p>\n

Leave it to young people to see what adults couldn\u2019t: that the cult of Ch\u00e1vez would one day collapse. <\/p>\n

And it continues: last week, the New York Times published another UFW investigation<\/a>, with former workers and volunteers claiming that Ch\u00e1vez, Huerta and other union leaders allowed a culture of misogyny to fester and ignored incidents of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

I drove down Avenida Cesar E. Chavez again to check whether any of the murals had been altered. The street buzzed with street vendors, teenagers out on summer break and elderly men sitting on low-slung walls.<\/p>\n

In the mural designed by the long-ago students, Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s face was gone, covered up in swirls of color that gave no hint of what was once there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect when I went to check out the C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez murals on the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":878134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[182566,31142,1582,276,86332,276570,17827,2327,22184,2961,224,2444,5337,13964,5204,70636,6141,3546,11645,625],"class_list":["post-878133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-avenue","tag-boy","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-cesar-chavez","tag-chavez","tag-face","tag-hand","tag-image","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-losangeles","tag-mural","tag-name","tag-panorama","tag-park","tag-people","tag-school","tag-street"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116776582043497236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}