Acclaimed author Luis J. Rodriguez and his wife, Maria, had a dream of bringing art and culture to a community long ignored by theaters and bookstores. So they took out a second mortgage on their San Fernando home and began renting what was once office space in a small strip mall.
Thus was born Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural in Sylmar. To most people, it's simply Tia Chucha's, which for the last five years has been a popular gathering place where people can sip lattes and eat tamales while reading about Chicano history or listening to local musicians and poets perform during weekly open-mike nights. On any given night, a guitarist might blend Mexican folk with hard rock, with the poets mixing English with Spanish slang as they recite.
"This place is a temple that is open seven days a week," said Maria Morales, 50, who discovered a passion for creative writing that's been nurtured at the center.
But the thriving art space will soon be closed.
The owner of the Glenoaks Boulevard strip mall housing Tia Chucha's has given Rodriguez until the end of February to move out so a high-tech laundromat can be built on the property.
"We can't compete with that kind of business," said Rodriguez, the author of 10 books who is internationally known for his 1993 memoir of gang life, "Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A."
Rodriguez and his supporters are scrambling to find a temporary location where they can operate the bookstore and performance space. Once they find a permanent spot, they plan to reopen the cafe.
A community meeting to talk about how to help the center move is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Pacoima Beautiful, a nonprofit organization at 11243 Glenoaks Blvd. in Pacoima.
Maria Rodriguez, better known as Trini, was optimistic about having to move and said the goal will be to find a larger space. "It's going to be a positive thing," she said.
Tia Chucha's opened in December 2001, tucked between a Pizza Hut and a beauty salon. It was named after Rodriguez's favorite aunt, a colorful woman who would show up unannounced at his childhood home in the San Gabriel Valley with her guitar and a bag of presents that included less-than-fragrant perfumes and colognes she had concocted.
