The Queen of Los Angeles will not allow her history to be erased, and neither will Barbara Carrasco’s 1981 mural L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective. Censored swiftly after its completion by the commissioners, the mural collected dust in storage for decades and is finally on permanent public view at the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County.

Why does this matter? We all deserve to have our stories told.

A cacophony of imperative Los Angeles histories find their proper place in Carrasco’s visual chronology, the darkest of which are not easily found in textbooks. Woven into long strands of La Reina’s brown hair are painted scenes from when cacti ruled the land through Indigeneity to the violence of colonization and enslavement and the eventual victories of heroes like Biddy Mason, who broke those chains for themselves and others. Oft-forgotten seminal moments fill vignettes, like the 1871 massacre mob-lynching of 22 Chinese men and boys, the Zoot Suit riots of 1943, and the horror of Japanese internment camps.

The epic mural is a crown jewel in the new NHM Commons wing, free and open to the public daily. Despite being silenced over 40 years ago, Carrasco and her mural are here to stay – and that, amigos, is poetic justice.