Prototype Issue
A Cultural Oasis Struggles to Stay Open
By Erick Gallindo
(page 1 of 2)Long-time activist and writer, Luis Rodriguez, fights for his café. RTLA caught up with him in the middle of a life-altering transition.
“We never stopped crossing borders,” wrote Luis J. Rodriguez in his 1993 critically acclaimed debut novel and memoir Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. “It was a metaphor to fill our lives. The L.A. River, for example, became a new barrier, keeping the Mexicans in their neighborhoods over on the vast east side of the city for years.”
From always running—from cops, rival gangs and his own demons—to running a cultural center, youth groups, newspapers, book signing tours, and his own family, Rodriguez has made a tough transition look easy.
“I celebrate 14 years of sobriety this year,” says the Chicano poet, who immigrated to the U.S. at 2 and was running with LA street gangs by 11. “I am grateful to have a wonderful wife and partner, Trini Rodriguez, and four wonderful children and grand children.”
But anyone who knows anything about the man will tell you, besides always running, he is always fighting.
The boy who began his battles on the streets of South Central, would go on to fight in a boxing ring, at anti-war rallies and for the Chicano movement. Today the struggle for his raza, the youth and to keep a part of LA’s rich Mexican-American heritage alive, continues.
His, Tia Chucha’s Café Cultural, rang in the new year with a notice to move; on February 28 it was forced to close. High-tech laundry machines replaced a bookstore and art house that featured regular live performances and workshops, while feeding Pacoima with a plethora of cultural education. The laundry company invested millions to get the slot held by Tia Chucha’s for the past five years.
Rodriguez didn’t let Tia Chucha’s out of sight for very long though, finding a temporary home at 10258 Foothill Blvd. in Lake View Terrace.
“We need places like this in every neighborhood, particularly the poor parts of Los Angeles. LA is losing the concept of neighborhood arts. Most arts funding goes to Hollywood and better-off areas like the Westside,” he says.
Tia Chucha’s didn’t come out unscathed in this battle. The center lost its café, but Rodriguez hopes to raise funds and find a larger, more permanent space within the next few years.
“We’ll still maintain a bookstore, our offices and a performance/workshop space. One of our big fundraisers will be an annual event—Tia Chucha’s Celebration of Community and Culture—at the Ford Amphitheater. We won’t be held back.”
The celebration, which marks its five-year anniversary of pushing the Chicano movement forward, will be held July 29 and will feature live music, Chicano comedy group Culture Clash, poet John Densmore of the Doors and Rodriguez himself.
“We’ve made tremendous strides: bilingual education, more Chicano teachers, a Chicano mayor and various Chicano politicians,” he says, but adds that the struggles are long from over.
“Chicanos are still vastly over-represented in the poverty numbers, among prisoners and drop out rates. And, unfortunately, many of our elected Chicano representatives still need to be more responsive to our concerns. We are the majority in LA, the second largest city in the U.S., yet you wouldn’t know it by the makeup of the power brokers and back-room decision makers. Much has changed, but far too much has remained the same.”
“We need places like this in every neighborhood, particularly the poor parts of Los Angeles. LA is losing the concept of neighborhood arts. Most arts funding goes to Hollywood and better-off areas like the Westside.”
However important today’s leaders are in the struggle, Rodriguez sees hope in the future.
“As older activists, we must help teach and support young people. They are hungry for roots, knowledge and inspiration.”
Rodriguez, who has his own website (www.luisjrodriguez.com), also feels that the advancements of the 20th century have only served to help the movement by mobilizing youth.
“New technologies changed how people voice, organize, and protest. For example, 40,000 students walked out of LA schools in March and April of 2006, mostly with the aid of these technologies.”
He does, however, note that the growing world has created new needs and new hopes in the movement.
“While we talk about the importance of Chicano leaders like Cesar Chavez, many of whom were examples for my own political/social participation, we still need many other leaders.”
One of these future leaders may be fellow writer and activist Mario Rocha, who Rodriguez has taken under his wing.
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