The Brief

The side of the Maravilla Meat Market in East Los Angeles serves as muralist J.D. “Zender” Estrada’s own “little museum,” he said —  a collection of his life’s work as a Chicano artist.  

On one side, the 2004 mural “Homage to Mexican Masters” depicts various Mexican artists from the early to mid-20th century gathered around a table. Around the corner, his 1995 piece “Raza Adelante” honors the Chicano movement, featuring Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, a female Brown Beret, various Aztec motifs, and a heroic-looking Cesar Chavez, leading the way with a candle.

For years, Estrada has maintained the murals himself, restoring damage from weather and graffiti. But recent sexual abuse allegations against Chavez have forced him to reflect on how movements and the people associated with them are memorialized. 

“If you look at the murals in context, most of the murals have a lot to do with culture and struggle and resistance,” Estrada said. 

The Chavez figure, he noted, was part of a larger narrative. It was commissioned by the Cesar Chavez Foundation in 1994, the same day that Brooklyn Avenue was renamed Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, to highlight the Chicano movement and its ties to the Eastside.

Following the New York Times investigation involving Chavez, public officials across LA County sprang into action, calling for changes to public landmarks, parks, street names and holidays that honor the labor leader. Across the state, some Chávez murals have been swiftly covered or painted over and statues have been removed. 

Estrada, however, said any changes should be collaborative and handled with care to preserve the artwork’s original intent and resolve the scars left behind by Chavez's tarnished legacy. 

How are murals protected?

In addition to the mural at Maravilla Meat Market in unincorporated East LA, Estrada created several across the Eastside for the Cesar Chavez Foundation, though many have since been erased or painted over.

In Boyle Heights, within the city of Los Angeles, his 1994 mural “Rescate” remains on the corner of East Cesar Chavez Avenue at North Evergreen Avenue, depicting Chavez carrying a group of people while holding a United Farm Workers flag.

The side of the Maravilla Meat Market in East Los Angeles serves as muralist J.D. “Zender” Estrada’s own “little museum,” he said — a collection of his life’s work as a Chicano artist.

“Rescate” is considered a Vintage Original Art Mural (VAM) under the City of Los Angeles’s 2013 Mural Ordinance, which lifted a 2002 ban on murals on private property. The ordinance gave artists the ability to register their previous works and apply to create new ones. Any mural created before October 12, 2013, was automatically protected under the ordinance.

The ordinance directs that any major change to a registered mural must first be approved by the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, even if it is submitted by the artist themselves, Estrada said.

Most of his works, even those not located in the city, are protected under the Visual Artists’ Rights Act (VARA), a federal law that grants artists certain rights over their work regardless of who owns it. Those changes, like touch-ups over time or restorations after they are vandalized, come out of his own pocket, Estrada said. 

Both the city and the county are exploring ways to assess changes to public property that bears the name or image of Chavez following the investigation, but those efforts do not include either of Estrada’s murals, which are located on private businesses.

At the county level, the LA County Board of Supervisors approved a motion Tuesday “to develop a community-driven process to review and rename County assets that currently bear Chavez’s name,” including civic artwork, or artwork located on county property. A report is due within 21 days.

In a statement to Boyle Heights Beat, the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs said it could not comment on legal questions but said murals on private property may be protected under state and federal law.

 “For murals on City property, the Department is determining its next steps to address any changes,” said Gabriel Cifarelli, public information director. 

Estrada said he has been in contact with both the Supervisor Hilda Solis and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s offices to propose changes to his artworks that preserve their original intent and hopes that the offices will work with him to provide the resources he needs. 

Working together to find resolve 

As the public continues to grapple with the allegations of sexual abuse against Chavez and his legacy as a leader of the farmworkers movement, some say the work that he and other leaders did to secure rights and fair working conditions for farmworkers will live beyond his image.

Standing in front of Estrada’s “Rescate” mural last week, Anabel Meza, said it’s important to not see historical figures as “black and white.”

“It’s common to have these heroic or noble people that have fought for really good causes but they also have dark sides to them, because they are human,” Meza said. “We need to step away from glorifying or putting them on pedestals.”

Last week, the Maravilla Meat Market took to Instagram to share a message with the community. 

“Speaking up takes courage, and those voices deserve to be heard and taken seriously,” the post reads. 

“Our murals are not random images. They are custom, commissioned works that represent history, culture, struggle, and identity,” the post continues, acknowledging that as a small business, changing or removing a mural of that scale requires time and money but they expressed their commitment to working with Estrada to determine its future.

“We will never ask an artist to redo work for free. His work matters. His time matters. His livelihood matters,” the post reads.

Estrada said the murals were painted to last for decades and function as historical landmarks. Altering them properly would require thousands of dollars and the same quality materials used originally.  

Restoration, he said, is not as simple as painting over a face and should continue to highlight Mexican-American culture and the voices of the farmworkers movement that were ignored.

“I would love to include the Filipinos that were all part of the struggle,” Estrada said, referring to the Filipino farmworkers who initiated the historic 1965 Delano grape strike, a movement later widely associated with Chavez and the United Farm Workers. 

Estrada said he would like to work with officials to restore the murals he has painted across the region in a meaningful way.  

He pointed to a Spanish saying: “No hay mal que por bien no venga.” 

“You can always get something positive out of a negative situation,” Estrada said. “Let this be something that we can learn from.”

The post His Cesar Chavez murals have been Eastside landmarks for decades. He says change should be thoughtful. appeared first on LA Local.

Southern California was built on radio.

"I can still hear the jingle KFWB News 98,” wrote  Taline in Los Feliz, during a recent conversation on LAist's daily news show, AirTalk, which airs on 89.3 FM. “I grew up hearing that in my dad's minivan on the way to and from school. It has a special place in my heart.”

Back in April, broadcast company Audacy announced KNX News — one of the last-remaining all-news FM stations — was leaving the FM dial where it had simulcast on 97.1 FM since 2021. The station, which is also one of the oldest in L.A., is not budging from 1070 AM where it has been on the air for more than 100 years. The move away from FM officially happened in May to make way for a new sports talk station, which Audacy officials called an area of growth for advertisers in today’s media landscape.

The move is one in a long line of changes for radio and a reminder that before podcasts, playlists and algorithms, many Southern Californians built their days around radio broadcasts.

Radio, a daily ritual

The construction of KNX

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Herman J. Schultheis

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Michael Jackson, a well-known KNX, personality

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Larry Mantle, now in his 41st year hosting AirTalk, remembers being a kid and dreaming of what it might be like to be behind the mic at one of these radio stations.

“ I grew up with KNX," he said. “My dream job as a kid was to be an anchor on KNX or KFWB, the two local all-news radio stations, 'cause there was nothing like hosting AirTalk that even existed at that point.”

Mantle opened up the phone lines on a recent show to hear from his fellow SoCal radio lovers about the shows they miss and the memories they have. Here's what they had to say:

A love for radio, then and now  

A pilot of KMPC's traffic alert helicopter pictured with his daughter and grandson.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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A 1963 picture of Valley State College (now Los Angeles Valley College) preparing to launch KVCM

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Larry Leach

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Los Angeles Public Library

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“When you'd walk down Hollywood Boulevard where the station was, you could hear it playing as you went down the street,” said  Olivia in Glendale about KLAC 570 with Al Jarvis.

 Larry in Yorba Linda shouted out KBCA Jazz for its 24-hour jazz, saying “When I first moved out here in '68 from Phoenix, which had like an hour a week, it was a real wonder.”

 Mark in Glassell Park emailed that he loves KCRW’s Henry Rollins, writing, “I used to bristle at his unique DJ persona, but over time, I came to love him and his crazy eclectic playlists. I find his knowledge in history and punk rock fascinating. He's a gem and a legend."

"I'd like to give a shout-out to all the DJs working at KXLU, the college station at Loyola Marymount University, said  Jeremy in Culver City in an email. “That station's been on the air for nearly 60 years. I believe it's one of the best examples of what's possible with radio."

"KFWB and KRLA back in the day when they were rock music stations —  Dr. Demento, one of my favorite on-air personalities, also had eclectic music taste," said  Carrie in Desert Edge.

“ Dr. Demento was must listening when I was a kid in junior high school at Le Conte Junior High in Hollywood,” Mantle added. “Every Sunday night on KMET, we would make sure we were listening to Dr. Demento and his funny records.”

The question remains…

An 11-year-old winning a car in a KMPC contest in 1963.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Listener support is vital to any radio station, and it’s clear KNX has many lifelong fans. AirTalk listeners highlighted their support for household KNX names over the decades like Bill Keene, Melinda Lee, Mike Roy and Jackie Olden.

As KNX makes changes, many are watching closely and thinking about the future of radio.

Listeners like Tommy in La Quinta are left wondering if the radio dial will be the same…

“I’m a hardcore listener, but I don't know about casual listeners [and] if they'll tune to AM,” he said.

After months of hand-wringing, Los Angeles and LA28 have come to a tentative agreement on how Olympics organizers will reimburse the city for its expenses for the 2028 Summer Games.

According to the deal, the private Olympic organizing committee will pay upfront for the estimated cost of services that are not eligible for federal reimbursement, like trash pick-up and traffic control. Under another proposal, the city would also be able to tap an LA28 contingency fund if it isn't fully repaid by the federal government for policing costs at Olympic venues.

The agreement is nearly nine months overdue and still needs approval by Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council.

The 2028 Olympics are intended to be privately financed, and an existing city agreement with LA28 states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games. But L.A. is the financial back-stop for the Olympics, meaning if LA28 goes in the red, taxpayers will pick up the bill.

Beyond that, the city services agreement presents another area where L.A. could incur additional unexpected expenses for hosting the Games. L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez warned LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover earlier this year that a bad deal could "bankrupt" the city.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, an LA28 spokesperson, and Paul Krekorian, who leads the city's office of major events, said in statements that the freshly inked agreement would help deliver a fiscally responsible Games.

"Mayor Bass’ priority is that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games be fiscally responsible, protect taxpayers, and benefit Angelenos for decades to come. This agreement helps deliver that commitment," Krekorian said.

But the contract between the two parties doesn't fully resolve one of the biggest areas of financial risk for the city: the enormous cost of security for an event as extensive and high-profile as the summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Organizers are counting on the federal government to pay for public safety at Olympic venues that are considered part of a "national special security event." That includes costs for LAPD staffing. LA28 has not included security costs in its $7.1 billion budget — a fact that City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto criticized earlier this year.

The federal government has so far allocated $1 billion for security costs for the Olympics. Exactly where those federal funds will go has not yet been determined, and there's no guarantee they will cover all of L.A.'s policing costs.

To address this, city officials have also proposed an amendment to a 2021 agreement between the city and LA28. That amendment would establish that if L.A. is not reimbursed by the federal government for all its eligible expenses, it could dip into LA28's contingency fund of $270 million before the private organizing committee could use those funds for any legacy projects.

But that bucket of money will first be used for any costs that Olympics organizers still owe if they run out of revenue — meaning if the Olympics don't turn a profit, the city's access to that money will depend on how much is left for the taking.

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who has been tracking the city's negotiations with LA28, told LAist the agreement was a "PR document" not a deal. She pointed out that if the federal government does not pay up for security spending as expected, L.A. could be in trouble.

" It leaves the taxpayers with a GoFundMe strategy," she said.

The city services agreement lays the groundwork for more negotiations between LA28 and the city. Each venue will require its own agreement, to be negotiated by July 1, 2027. Venues in the city of L.A. include Dodger Stadium, the L.A. Convention Center, L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The City Council's ad-hoc committee on the 2028 Games will meet Tuesday afternoon to vote on the agreement.