Dolores Huerta towered over dozens of Angelenos gathered beneath the 5-month-old, hundred-foot tall mural in Downtown Los Angeles, depicting the storied labor leader and progressive activist who died at 96 on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
It was here, just in May, where Huerta helped christen the mural, titled “Walking into History, adorning a side of the historic Barclay Hotel on Fourth Street.
And it was here, where Huerta’s fighting spirit, even at 96, was on full display, as she called for an end to homophobia and violence against women while lauding gains made by farmworkers through organizing.
That spirit was alive and well as the Wednesday night vigil took root, her eyes watching overhead, as depicted by artist Robert Vargas‘ giant, illuminated piece towered in the darkening L.A. sky. Dozens of onlookers arrived to pay tribute. Cell phones aimed at the mural. A chance to capture the day when the nation lost a civil rights icon. They saw tea lights and white roses from a marigold-strewn altar.
Huerta’s dedication to the causes of others echoed throughout the evening.
“Although she wasn’t a farmworker, she planted the seeds across the world that blossomed organizers in every country on this earth,” said Lidia Avila, a board member on the Dolores Huerta Foundation.
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Gathered at a mural featuring Dolores Huerta in Los Angeles on October 28, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)
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Gathered at a mural featuring Dolores Huerta in Los Angeles on October 28, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)
Avilia was joined by muralist Vargas, L.A.’s Mayor Karen Bass, and an array of others who joined the event, organized by Aids Healthcare Foundation.
Weaving between a live mariachi band’s somber melodies, they recalled Huerta’s conviction in the power of the people as a crowd composed of everyone from Councilmember Nythia Raman to fellow nonprofit organizers gathered
Huerta’s decades-spanning work included everything from co-founding the United Farm Workers union and spearheading the five-year Delano Grape Strike and Boycott to creating the foundation in her name dedicated to civic advocacy and causes.
Avila recalled walking with her hero in Chicano Park in San Diego. Despite the cautionary tale to never meet one’s heroes, Avila told Huerta knowing her only strengthened her commitment to dedicating her life to service.
“No Lidia,” Avila said Huerta told her. “We don’t give our lifetime, we give beyond our lifetime, because it’s future generations that are going to benefit from the fight of today.”
Speakers highlighted this message by listing off the impacts her fight for union benefits and unemployment insurance had on the descendants of farmworkers, leading to generations of doctors and lawyers and politicians.
Huerta’s intersectional approach to advocacy underscored how different causes could empower one another, such as applying a feminist lens to women farmworkers who faced a heightened risk of sexual violence and the need to protect children laboring alongside their parents in the fields. This lens outlined her position as a labor organizer.
“Historically the labor movement in this country has been dominated by male leadership and sometimes even the patriarchy,” said Victor Narra, a professor of Labor Studies at UCLA. “She broke that barrier and because of her, a lot of women of color held leadership positions in the labor movement.”
Vargas alluded to painting Huerta in the aftermath of her sexual assault allegations against Cesar Chavez that put into question the heroics at play in the many paintings and avenues dedicated to him around the country.
“Equally important was the opportunity to paint someone who deserved to be on a wall like this…for that small stature to be this big, which was how we all saw her,” Vargas said.
“There’s no wall that could contain her,” Vargas said.