The Brief

Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles is home to a celebrated mural about the Filipino American experience, one of the largest and oldest of its kind in the country. But the depiction of one figure is bringing the artwork fresh attention and leading to accusations of transphobia.

Featured on the colorful mural, along with labor leader Larry Itliong and musician APL.DE.AP of the Black Eyed Peas, is the Filipino pop singer Jake Zyrus before he came out as transgender.

A growing chorus of voices, including Zyrus himself, say the portrait should be changed.

The singer

Zyrus had been added to the mural during an 2011 update, fresh off of becoming the first solo Asian artist to have an album reach Billboard’s top 10. Acclaimed appearances on Glee and The Oprah Winfrey Show made him one of the most famous Filipinos in the U.S.

Then in 2017, Zyrus came out as a trans man to a mixed response from fans. In the seven years since, as he's worked to reintroduce himself as a singer to audiences, his name and image on the HiFi mural have not been updated to the alarm of some community leaders.

“I feel that it's very important to address deadnaming, to address transphobia,” said Eddy Gana, co-founder of the Filipino American arts organization Sunday Jump.

Earlier this month, Sunday Jump made a post about the mural on Instagram tied to Pride Month, sparking impassioned discussion. Gana, who is trans and non-binary, belongs to the camp that wants the mural updated as soon as possible by removing the singer's portrait and mention of his former name and creating a new painting “to reflect Jake Zyrus today.”

With transgender rights under increasing attack across the country, Gana says there’s urgency to put a stop to deadnaming.

“It leads for us as trans folks to contemplate our very own existence, leads to depression and anxiety to be in a world where we feel like that we don't belong — and we do belong,” Gana said.

What does Zyrus want? His management company has not responded to requests for comment.

But in a letter written by the singer and shared by Sunday Jump, Zyrus urged the mural’s designer and local leaders to replace the current portrait of him with one representing his "true self."

The artist

Eliseo Art Silva, the prolific and well-known artist behind the mural, said it’s important to know what Zyrus' wishes are.

But he added: "It's not up to me, you know, it's not really up to me."

Silva said he can’t retool the mural he started in 1995 until there are multiple community meetings, funding is secured and a design plan decided. He added he is also booked up with work, which includes restoring the right half of the 150-foot-long mural (Zyrus' image is on the other half) and painting a fresco at a neighborhood Catholic church.

The mural is located on an exterior wall of the Rideback Ranch, an entertainment complex in Filipinotown.

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While asserting his openness to change, Silva also revealed he had his parameters. Pre-colonial Philippine folklore inspired him to locate Zyrus next to Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao on the mural so they could represent the first man and woman. Repainting Zyrus throws off that concept, he said.

"I cannot just disrupt the narrative,” Silva said. “It's going to compromise the integrity of the entire mural.”

Silva said he is open to replacing Zyrus with a notable Filipina and painting a new likeness of him elsewhere on the mural.

Another idea, Silva said, would be to keep the current image of Zyrus while adding a new portrait of him. But critics of this proposal say it's transphobic for Silva to treat Zyrus as two different people and to still use his former name.

Silva said he was frustrated and saddened by the controversy, noting he's shown support for the LGBTQ+ community with the inclusion of gay Filipino Americans such as the artist Alfonso Ossorio, as well as a babaylan, a shaman from the pre-colonial era who was typically a woman or trans.

Visitors to Historic Filipinotown are greeted by arches on Beverly Boulevard, also designed by Eliseo Art Silva.

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Silva said the mural is being unfairly attacked when there are so few like it that honor Filipino American culture and history.

"They should campaign for more murals, instead of trying to bring down this one mural we have in L.A., you know what I mean?” Silva said.

The community

Joe Virata is a retired college administrator who helped guide the creation of the mural nearly 30 years ago and, more recently, made a short film about the historic significance of the artwork.

He expects a community discussion over what to do with the Zyrus portrait will take months and inflame passions.

“I think that we're going to run into some challenging conversations that include artists’ rights, community rights, historical context,” Virata said.

He wants a broader swath of the Filipino American community to weigh in on the controversy. From his perspective, the current portrait of Zyrus should be preserved as a "snapshot of a particular moment."

The mural's name is Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana, meaning "A Glorious History, A Golden Legacy."

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“I would hate to see a process that's initiated where the conversation is stacked, where it's Eliseo versus a whole bunch of people who are shaking their fists and demanding we need change right now,” Virata said.

But addressing the deadnaming is not a new ask, according to community leaders who say they’ve been working on the issue for years with little traction until Sunday Jump’s social media post this month.

Now the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, the mural’s steward, and the office of Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, say they want to plan next steps with community organizations.

“It does take community to push this issue, to really light a fire under it and make it right,” said Kimmy Maniquis, executive director of the community group Search To Involve Pilipino Americans.

Maniquis said she cherishes the mural, which friends and family helped to paint in the '90s as part of a community effort, because of the care that went into capturing "the cultural richness and resistance that comes with our history." But when the deadnaming of Zyrus was brought to her attention about two years ago, she said it was imperative to find a fix.

The local Filipino American community now has a clear opportunity to show support for trans people, Maniquis said.

"When it's convenient, we embrace LGBTQ identity and trans identity," Maniquis said. "Then when it becomes really complicated politically, I don't think we necessarily ally very well."

How the community chooses to act could become a case study of sorts.

“We won’t be the last community dealing with deadnaming as part of murals, right?” Maniquis said. “What we do in this moment is actually really important."

Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.