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.

File this under things that could only happen in L.A.

Paradise Dynasty, the Singapore-based chain known for its signature eight-flavor xiao long bao, has teamed up with Burritos La Palma — the SoCal burrito institution whose birria de res recipe traces back over 45 years — to create a limited-edition birria soup dumpling. The Birria XLB will be available starting Monday (May 11) for a limited time at Paradise Dynasty locations.

I've eaten my weight in both soup dumplings and burritos, so naturally, I'm a fan of both.

Paradise Dynasty has been on a steady ascent as a major player in L.A.'s dumpling scene, with locations at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and The Americana at Brand in Glendale.

Meanwhile, Burritos La Palma — known for its simple, savory burritos and finely crafted flour tortillas — has been capturing hearts and stomachs since Alberto Bañuelos opened the first eatery in L.A. in 2012. It’s since grown to several spots across L.A. and Orange County, earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand award in 2024 for its high-quality, Zacatecan-style handmade flour tortilla burritos at an affordable price.

How the collab came together

So what exactly is a birria soup dumpling? A delicate wrapper, lightly packed with tender birria de res — slow-braised beef stewed in chilies and spices — juicy, savory and gone in one bite.

It all began with a call from Paradise Dynasty, when Jason Kuo, district manager for Paradise Dynasty USA, reached out to Bañuelos, calling it, simply, a perfect match between the two dishes.

Kuo said the idea came straight from the community.

"When we started asking guests and people around us what flavor they would want to see in a soup dumpling, birria kept coming up again and again — it was very clear. If we're going to do birria, it has to be done right. Burritos La Palma was the first name that came to mind."

Bañuelos was "beyond thrilled" to have been approached.

"We come from a small town in Mexico, and to be able to elevate to the level of Paradise Dynasty and that culinary perfection, I can't even really put it into words," he said.

It took months of R&D to get the right consistency. Bañuelos said the process required dialing down the moisture and upping the spice potency and landed on serving a fresh red salsa with thin slivers of serrano peppers alongside — a riff on the black vinegar and pickled ginger traditionally served with soup dumplings.

The Birria XLB's juicy interior is part of what makes it work — the dish is served with a fresh, tomato-based salsa and slivers of serrano pepper in place of the traditional black vinegar and pickled ginger.

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Katrina Frederick

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Courtesy Paradise Dynasty

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How it tastes

I got a chance to try the dumplings ahead of the public launch and was struck by how well the combination worked. The juicy nature of birria is almost turbocharged in dumpling form, its savory, herbaceous flavors fully encapsulated in the thin skin, creating an exceptional texture in every bite. The dish hits even harder when dipped in the light tomato-based salsa — a rush of freshness that cuts through the richness, with a spike of heat from fresh serrano. (Feel free to skip the peppers if spice isn't your thing.)

But what's most impressive is how organic it all feels. This isn't fusion for fusion's sake — it's a natural meeting of two dishes that are deeply embedded in the Southern California diet, each playing to the other's strengths.

It feels like a logical meeting of the minds — birria and soup dumplings have both been part of L.A.'s culinary zeitgeist for the better part of a decade, and it makes sense that these worlds should collide.

When asked whether a collaboration like this could happen anywhere else, Bañuelos was quick: "It has to start in L.A. You just can't compete."

Where to try it

Nine Democratic House members from California are demanding information about how the Trump administration is treating unaccompanied migrant children who are pregnant and in federal custody. They’ve signed a letter, along with 39 other House Democrats, to Trump officials expressing their concern that the girls are not receiving adequate medical care or access to abortion.

The letter comes in the wake of an investigation by the California and Texas Newsrooms, public media collaboratives in those states. LAist is part of The California Newsroom.

The joint investigation found that the federal government is detaining pregnant migrant girls in a single group home in South Texas. Doctors and reproductive-health experts interviewed for the investigation said prenatal care is severely limited in that region.

The letter says the detention violates federal regulations because the children are “entitled to the full range of medical care, including reproductive health care.”

Rep. Gil Cisneros, who represents the central San Gabriel Valley, says he worries that pregnant migrants who are apprehended in California will be put at risk if they’re sent to a part of Texas that is short on obstetric care. Of particularly concern: High-risk pregnancies are common among minors.

“If they were in California," he said, "they would be able to have more choices of the type of health care that they would get when it comes to reproductive health care.”

Rep. Judy Chu, who represents the West San Gabriel Valley, wrote in a statement that “this administration is so intent on restricting abortion that it is using immigration detention as a tool to control these girls’ bodies.”

Mark Betancourt is a regular contributor to The California Newsroom. 

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating how the Los Angeles Unified School District responds to educators accused of sexual misconduct with students.

The department accuses the district of maintaining a policy that “automatically” reassigns teachers to other schools when they are accused of sexual misconduct with students and cites a 2024 agreement with the teachers union.

A Los Angeles Unified spokesperson wrote in a statement that it’s “not true” that staff being investigated for sexual misconduct are reassigned to other school sites.

“‘Reassignment’ typically means an employee is directed to remain at home and away from students and schools during an investigation,” the spokesperson wrote.

United Teachers Los Angeles called the DOE's accusations a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the district’s reassignment policy.

“[Employees] are not reassigned to another classroom or to any other setting where they would interact with students,” read a statement provided by the union. “This policy protects both students and staff and creates conditions for a thorough and appropriate investigation of allegations.”

What to expect from the federal investigation

The federal investigation, overseen by the department’s Office for Civil Rights, will assess whether the district’s policy violates Title IX, a law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.

Kimberly Richey, the assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in a statement that Title IX requires schools to address claims of sexual misconduct in a “timely manner.”

“It is unconscionable that the district would simply ignore Title IX’s procedural requirements to protect teachers who cause life-changing harm to their kids,” Richey wrote. “The Trump administration will always fight to uphold the law, protect the safety of all students and restore common sense to our schools.”

The Trump administration also has recently targeted LAUSD's desegregation policy and transgender student protections.

Last year, the office failed to resolve any cases related to sexual harassment, sexual violence or racial harassment, according to a report released by Sen. Bernie Sanders in late April. Sanders is the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Education Committee.

In March 2025, the Trump administration pushed to cut over half of OCR’s nearly 600 staff members, which contributed to a growing backlog of cases. Those employees were placed on administrative leave pending the result of legal challenges, and many were later brought back.

The Education Department has also withheld records related to civil rights investigations, prompting a lawsuit from investigative nonprofit newsroom ProPublica.

What does LAUSD’s policy say? 

LAUSD protocol related to employee misconduct says administrators must remove accused employees from their classroom or worksite whenever there is a risk to the safety of students or staff.

The 110-page protocol document also lists several other requirements for allegations related to sexual misconduct, including contacting law enforcement and the agencies that license teachers.

“Los Angeles Unified takes all allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment with the utmost seriousness,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Our primary responsibility is to ensure the safety, dignity and well-being of every student and staff member in our care.” The statement also said the district follows Title IX procedures and continuously reviews its policies, training and reporting systems.

The UTLA settlement outlines several circumstances where an employee can be reassigned, including a law enforcement investigation of misconduct, sexual harassment of a student, behavior toward a student perceived to be motivated by a sexual interest and communicating with a student for non-school-related purposes.

School employees are “mandated reporters” who must, by law, notify local law enforcement or child welfare agencies of suspected child abuse or neglect. California Attorney General Rob Bonta reminded K-12 school district leaders in late April of their legal obligation to prevent sexual misconduct and protect students.

How prevalent is sexual misconduct in California schools?

There have been few comprehensive studies of sexual misconduct in schools. A 2004 report to the Department of Education estimated 1-in-10 students experiences sexual misconduct, ranging from inappropriate comments to physical abuse.

A new California law requires schools to train students and staff to recognize and report misconduct and write new policies on “appropriate behavior.” It also will create a new database of educators credibly accused of abuse.

More than 1,000 lawsuits related to sexual abuse that date to the 1940s have been filed against California school districts since the enactment of a 2019 law that gave victims a three-year window to sue.

LAUSD has authorized $750 million in bonds to pay for sexual misconduct settlements related to suits stemming from the law.

The LA County Library has begun its Summer of Soccer program to bring the excitement of the North American tournament to all Angelenos.

“Soccer has a unique way of bringing people together across cultures and communities,” Skye Patrick, director of the LA County Library, said on the library website.

The program kicked off May 1 with the library system offering limited-edition Summer of Soccer library cards, emblazoned with the library logo, the outline of a soccer pitch and a ball hitting the back of a net.

The new limited-edition Summer of Soccer library cards

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Courtesy LA County Public Library

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The cards are available for free for anyone signing up for the first time and for $1 for people who already have an LA County Library card.

From soccer story time to making circuit boards

There’s a whole range of Summer of Soccer events at branch libraries, from May 20 to July 9.

Highlights include a soccer-themed story time for 2- to 5-year-olds at Graham Library, north of Watts at 3:30 p.m. June 4, while at 3 p.m. the same day, the A C Bilbrew Library west of Compton hosts “Makey Makey for Teens,” which will lead youth through the steps to make their own game controllers and test them on a virtual soccer field. This and other programs repeat at other branches.

All Summer of Soccer events are free and are designed to support youth and families during the summer months when school is not in session.

The LA County Library serves more than three million residents through its 86 libraries and four Cultural Resource Centers, as well as Bookmobiles and other outreach vehicles.