About 50 people gathered around noon Saturday for a peaceful protest outside Lou’s Bodega restaurant on East Cesar Chavez, which some critics in social media have accused of cultural appropriation in its marketing.

The protest was organized by the Austin activist group Defend our Hoodz, which posted Friday on Facebook: “We demand that Lou’s Bodega immediately end any use of Chicano and indigenous imagery in their branding, whether on merchandise, packaging or on their website. This includes their ‘woman warrior’ tote bags, their T-shirts with ‘Bienvenidos’ on them, and indigenous patterns on hats and elsewhere.”

As protestors gathered Saturday on the sidewalk outside Lou's Bodega, some passersby in vehicles honked in support. The window-service cafe with grab-and-go options sits at the former site of Leal’s Tire Shop, which is now operating under the name Gomez Tires on East Seventh Street. After the tire shop made the decision to move, Lou’s Bodega leased the property from the family that has owned it for decades, according to a statement released by McGuire Moorman Hospitality and Bunkhouse, the companies behind Lou’s Bodega.

The business kept and restored many of the building’s well-known Aztec murals and added a new one of a female warrior. “Some of the branding for Lou’s Bodega is an extension of the preserved murals and we only hope to draw awareness to them and celebrate them,” the statement said.

McGuire Moorman Hospitality and Bunkhouse said the business has been vandalized multiple times and received threats of violence.

“We have been, and continue to have, lengthy conversations with longtime East Side residents and community leaders,” the companies wrote. “We treat social media as a marketing platform and clearly use it to promote our business, not a place for people to promote hate or make threats. We believe face to face conversations are the ones worth having – real discussions that lead to growth and better understanding.”

East Cesar Chavez Street has seen numerous longtime businesses depart and new ones launch in recent years. Last spring, a University of Texas study revealed that about 74 percent of longtime East Austin residents in the study area held negative views of the rapid changes. Some of their concerns included a feeling that new restaurants are unwelcoming, didn’t cater to their tastes or were not priced for them.

Defend our Hoodz added on its protest event page that Lou’s Bodega “added insult to injury by turning the beloved Chicano murals on Leal’s into their ‘branding opportunity.’ ”

Indigenous activist Louis Moncivias, 53, said he has lived in Austin since his birth and saw both of his grandmothers' homes outside downtown Austin seized under eminent domain. He was livestreaming the protest Saturday on social media.

“These are our lands, these are our cultural regions,” Moncivias said. “To see all the people moving in here. ... They are all moving in from failed cities.”