The Brief

You may have developed a taste for Oaxacan food in L.A., with its tlayudas and vast array of moles.

But within that is another culinary tradition, specific to the Oaxacan highlands of Southern Mexico: Zapotec. It’s one of the oldest indigenous civilizations in Mesoamerica, with a distinct language and foodways that predate Spanish colonization. But as with many other Indigenous cultures, it’s often overlooked, erased under "Latino" or "Mexican."

Yet away from the spotlight, the culture is very much alive.

"The Zapotec culture is thriving here. There are so many things happening in indigenous communities throughout L.A., in backyards, in kitchens, in communities most Angelenos never see," said Odilia Romero, who leads CIELO, an indigenous-focused nonprofit.

A spread of dried chiles, heirloom corn and cacao beans reflects the Sierra Norte Zapotec ingredients at the heart of Lugya'h's communal dinner.

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Jon Endow

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Courtesy Lugya'h

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Which is why that tradition is being celebrated on March 4, when Lugya'h (pronounced LOOG-yah) will host its first communal dinner from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Oaxacan restaurant, located inside Maydan Market in West Adams, is a joint project from Romero and James Beard-nominated chef Alfonso "Poncho" Martínez. What began as a beloved backyard pop-up now has a permanent home in the market, where Martínez works alongside chef de cuisine Evelyn Gregorio.

Martínez, who grew up plowing fields and planting corn in Sierra Norte, is one of a handful of indigenous Zapotec chefs working in L.A.

Lugya'h — which translates in Zapotec to "the face and hearth of the plaza" — normally offers a menu of tlayudas and moronga. But the communal dinner marks a deliberate departure, reflecting the broader breadth of Sierra Norte Zapotec cooking, including aged tasajó, (cured beef) wild cebollina (a wild green onion that grows naturally in the mountains) and heirloom maíz.

It’s meant to start a conversation about Zapotec identity and visibility, drawing attention to the fact that indigenous people throughout California help sustain its food industry, from the fields to the kitchen, but are consistently swept into the larger Latino identity.

Chef de cuisine Evelyn Gregorio is part of the Lugya'h team at Maydan Market in West Adams.

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Jon Endow

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Courtesy Lugya'h

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"From planting to serving your food, they are indigenous people — but they're never talked about that way," Romero said.

A 2024 report by USC's Equity Research Institute and CIELO found that one in five indigenous migrant workers in L.A. County work in restaurants — more than double the rate of Latinx immigrants broadly. Yet they remain largely invisible, often counted only as "Latino" in data and policy. Over two-thirds of those accessing CIELO's services identified as Zapotec, one of the county's largest and least visible indigenous communities.

Tasajo, moronga and a tlayuda from Lugya'h's regular menu at Maydan Market in West Adams.

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Jon Endow

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Courtesy Lugya'h'

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It's a tension Martínez knows firsthand — a local museum once sought out his recipe for an event, only to pass on having him there to tell the story behind it.

"They wanted the Oaxacan food, but they didn't want the Oaxacan people," he said.

The menu

The four-course, family-style dinner ($119/person) opens with tartare de tasajó — flank steak aged and salted in-house and served rare — an original creation you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the world.

It's followed by an anchovy tostada on Lugya'h's homemade heirloom non-GMO maiz, inspired by topotillo and charales, small preserved fish traditional to Oaxacan markets, served with avocado and guaje purée — a quiet nod to coastal Zapotec foodways that rarely make it onto L.A. menus. A farmers market salad rooted in California citrus and tomatoes and grilled skirt steak with in-house pressed heirloom corn tortillas and a variety of Oaxacan-rooted salsas round out the savory courses. Chef Evelyn closes the meal with a guava mousse — reminiscent of the pink guava water found in Oaxacan markets, sweetened with molasses.

Hands assemble a tlayuda at Lugya'h, layering mole, fresh greens and dried chiles — ingredients rooted in Sierra Norte Zapotec cooking.

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Jon Endow

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Courtesy Lugya'h

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Going forward, Martínez and Romero intend to host two communal dinners per month, with the menu changing monthly. For Martínez, the dinners are an act of resistance through persistence.

"We're gonna continue pushing so that it could be something strong," he said.

Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie Moonlight, but don't expect to see him at this year's Oscars ceremony.

"I tend to stay away from the awards show," McCraney said. " I think I might have PTSD."

McCraney is referring to the viral moment from the 2017 Oscars ceremony, where La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner instead of Moonlight.

McCraney isn't new to theater. In fact, you could consider it his original home before his play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue launched him into the Hollywood spotlight. But when the Geffen Playhouse asked him to be their artistic director two years ago, it called him back to the stage in a different way. Tapping a screenwriter for the position was a first for the theater, but McCraney said the roles actually overlap in more ways than one.

 "The job of the screenwriter most times is to make sure that everybody is understanding where the story is going and what the 'action' of the piece is," McCraney said. "So it's not that much different than being an artistic director.  My job here is to set the artistic goal for the organization. [To] point out its virtues and pitfalls, the dangers and the obstacles, and then move collectively as a single storyteller towards that goal."

McCraney said one of the great things about living in Los Angeles is its nuanced racial and ethnic communities, and he rides his bike around the city to better experience them.

"The landscape is constantly shifting and changing," McCraney said. "For example, Westwood has drastically changed over the past 15 years and will change irrevocably with the coming of the new train station down on Wilshire. It will change again with LA28 happening."

Just like Los Angeles, the Geffen Playhouse has had multiple transformations over its more than 30 year existence. Their world premier show, Silvia Silvia Silvia, is playing until March 8. Dragon Mama, starring Sarah Porkalob, begins March 4.

"Sarah is an incredible singer and writer and has created this incredible arc through a family that is both powerful and witty, but also deeply nuanced," McCraney said. "She's sharing that family with us, and family is our first community. They are the people we learn the most from. We learn unconditional love. We learn collective bargaining. Investigating family, investigating why we stay together and how we stay together through dire circumstances is a critical investigation for us right now."

When it comes to this year's Oscars ceremony, McCraney said he's rooting for all the nominees.

"It's been an incredible season," he said. "But Sinners is an incredible film that I've seen three or four times, so I'm really excited to see how it does."

The Long Beach Community College District has agreed to pay $18 million to more than 1,450 part-time professors to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged they were forced to work unpaid hours outside the classroom, grading papers and tests, meeting with students, preparing lessons and other duties.

The settlement, which the district board quietly approved last month, still needs the judge overseeing the case to sign off. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 1 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It’s likely that Judge Stuart Rice will approve the deal. Last year, he ruled that the part-timers, commonly called adjuncts, were entitled to the pay they sought, writing he found “a myriad of problems” with the district’s claims that its practices did not violate state law.

The case has made “a major impact throughout the state already,” as some districts have begun negotiating contract terms to give adjuncts what they’ve long sought — pay for time they spend prepping and grading, not just for class time, said the plaintiffs’ lawyer Eileen B. Goldsmith, in an interview. (EdSource published an investigative series in the issue, Gig By Gig At California’s Community Colleges, in 2022.)

The Long Beach district recently set aside $20 million for the settlement and associated costs, its spokesperson, Stacey Toda, told the Long Beach Post in an email. “Resolving this matter allows the District to avoid prolonged litigation and manage risk responsibly, consistent with standard practices across public higher education,” Toda wrote.

The settlement “is a big deal, it is tremendous,” said John Martin, chair of the California Part-Time Faculty Association, and a community college adjunct professor in Shasta and Butte counties.

Martin, a long-time advocate for better pay for adjuncts, is also the plaintiff in similar ongoing lawsuits, including one against the state Community College system.

In legal papers filed in the Superior Court, Goldsmith wrote that the proposed settlement, if approved, will result in 1,456 class members receiving more than “$11,000 — a very meaningful result for these class members, particularly given the novel issues in this litigation.”

The Long Beach Post contributed to this story.