Join us for a screening of Hailing Cesar, followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker and local muralists and arts activists.
Hailing Cesar follows Eduardo Chavez’s journey to understand the legacy and struggle of his grandfather Cesar Chavez. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with director Eduardo Chavez, muralists John Zender Estrada, Daniel Cervantes and Pola Lopez, and scholar-artivist Brenda Perez. The panel will discuss Cesar Chavez's legacy, looking at Highland Park as a case study with the recent whitewashing of the Cesar Chavez Foundation funded mural at Garvanza Elementary and other local murals featuring sacred and Indigenous imagery by displaced Chicanx artists.
Eduardo Chavez is a director and actor whose work addresses themes of labor rights, Latino empowerment, activism and social justice.
Muralist John Zender Estrada was commissioned by the Chavez Foundation to paint murals across Los Angeles and has been active in preserving murals across the state through his work with Creative Art Solutions.
Brenda Perez is a local Highland Park scholar and artivist who founded Restorative Justice for the Arts to resist the whitewashing of her community's sacred artworks. Her academic work as a Ph.D candidate investigates the psychological trauma of gentrification and the importance of community art to healing collective traumas and resisting discrimination.