Labor activist Dolores Huerta attended the dedication ceremony for her new mural in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday.
It marked the 96-year-old civil rights icon’s first public appearance since she came forward with sexual abuse allegations against her farmworkers union co-founder César Chávez in March. The allegations prompted a reckoning over his legacy in California and beyond.
Huerta used Saturday’s occasion to speak out against the recent tactics of federal immigration officers.
“We all know what our immigrant community has been under, the way that they have been attacked, the way they’re being detained and all of this horrible stuff that is happening to our immigrant community,” she said.
The mural, titled “Walking into History,” is located on the north side of the Barclay Hotel. It was created by Robert Vargas, an artist behind several of LA’s famous murals.
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared Jan. 24 as Robert Vargas Day.