The Whitewashing of the Most Visceral Mural of the Chicano Movement

Remembering Roberto Chavez’s L.A. Landmark

In 1974, artist Roberto Chavez painted a 200-by-30-foot mural called The Path to Knowledge and the False University at East Los Angeles College, where he was a professor of Chicano studies. The mural featured surrealist pyramids, large cubist-inspired faces, military tanks, weapons of war, and even a self-portrait of Chavez painting amidst symbols representing the struggles and choices of college students. The mural spread out like an ancient Mesoamerican codex across the upper wall of the Ingalls Auditorium, now known as the Edison Center for the Arts. It displayed …