Boyle Heights mural honoring Dodger icon Fernando Valenzuela now officially complete

BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A striking mural in Boyle Heights that honors legendary Dodger pitcher Fernando Valenzuela is now complete.

Artist Robert Vargas completed his tribute to the late Dodgers great over the weekend. He began painting the massive mural just before the Boys in Blue advanced to the World Series, and the same day Valenzuela passed away.

Valenzuela died last month at the age of 63.

Dodgers legendary pitcher Fernando Valenzuela has died at age 63 after becoming hospitalized with an undisclosed illness.

On Sunday, Vargas unveiled the third and final panel of the six-story "Fernando Mania Forever" mural on the side of an apartment building at First Street near Mariachi Plaza.

Community members and fans gathered to get the first look of the mural.

"This is probably one of the most monumental moments in Boyle Heights history, because of the fact that this mural has been painted in this manner and represents something that really is iconic - not only to the Latino community, but to baseball and to the world," said actor Edward James Olmos.

Vargas says the mural is an altar, just as much as it is a celebration of a wonderful life. He says he loves to create works of art that represent the people who live with them.

At the beginning of the season, Vargas painted a mural of Shohei Ohtani in Little Tokyo and says the Valenzuela piece in a way bookends the 1st Street bridge.

"Kind of creating this idea of the 1st Street Bridge being this bridge of oneness, the bridge of community, unity," he said.