Artists behind the mural said its removal erases cultural identity and history from the neighborhood.
AUSTIN, Texas — A once-prominent mural of late labor leader Cesar Chavez has been removed from an East Austin building, sparking disappointment among the artists and community members who helped create it.
The mural, which had been on the building since 2023, was painted over as part of a broader effort to distance the property from the Hispanic civil rights leader after multiple sexual abuse allegations were made against him.
“We grew up looking at murals in East Austin, everywhere you turned, every wall you saw, it was a symbol of our culture,” said Bertha Rendon Ortiz, founder of Arte Texas — the organization that painted the mural.
Ortiz said she spent her youth watching murals be defaced or erased under layers of graffiti and fresh paint. That experience pushed her to act.
“That’s how Arte Texas was born,” Ortiz said. “It was a group of us that were just wanting to bring back the art to our community and our neighborhood.”
Since forming in 2015, Arte Texas has restored and recreated several well-known East Austin murals, including La Lotería and For La Raza. The group also repainted the Chavez mural at East Cesar Chavez and Waller streets to revive a piece that had been vandalized repeatedly over the years.
“We thought of it as a restoration. We thought of it as bringing back our Cesar Chavez; finally our history is gonna be back up there,” Ortiz said.
The artwork depicted the likeness of Chavez surrounded by field workers, with a microphone in front of him — a symbol of his leadership and advocacy. According to Ortiz, the project took four weeks to complete but was covered up in only a few days.
“A culture and identity that we all knew, and erased in 24 hours,” Ortiz said.
Austin city leaders are weighing possible name changes for Cesar Chavez Street, and celebrations honoring the late labor leader were also swiftly cancelled.
However, Rendon Ortiz says the actions hurt Hispanics and the Chicano movement in the process.
“We’re devastated, but we don’t want our history to be erased,” Ortiz said. “We don’t want the work that’s been paved for us to be taken away. And so it’s a sad day for East Austin.”
Ron Ramirez, who was visiting Austin, said the swift removal of landmarks and art dedicated to Chavez feels one-sided.
“Chavez was such a revered leader and such an important part of the Mexican-American,” Chavez said. “There’s plenty of other politicians who have been doing many things wrong, yet nobody’s jumping on them to erase them.”
KVUE contacted the property’s co-owner for comment, but has not received a response by the time of publication. Ortiz said she will not work with the owners again.
As of now, no future plans for new artwork at the site have been announced.