MacArthur Park Gentrification Drives Out Mariachi Band

The Metro Red Line station at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles is breathing new life into the neighborhood. It's also making life for longtime residents very expensive, driving out fixtures of the area. Among those effected is the Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, a well-known band that's held down a regular gig at La Fonda Mexican supper club.

Patricia Nazario: Long before karaoke was popular, this was: Mariachi music fans settling in for an evening of dining and singing along with live musicians playing old familiar tunes.

[Sound of woman singing along]

Nazario: On this night, Elena Sandi is sharing a table at with her husband and two daughters. They drove 60 miles from Ontario to celebrate one of the girls' 14th birthday at La Fonda Mexican Restaurant.

Elena Sandi: The first date we had was here. And when I was pregnant, we came and celebrated my pregnancy. So, we're always celebrating here. So this for us is history, because all my family gets together here. And we're a huge family.

Nazario: That's the kind of gathering place Natividad, or "Nati," Cano dreamed of when he opened the restaurant 37 years ago. His vision helped shore up this neighborhood during rough times in the 1980s and '90s.

Nati Cano: The catastrophes of Rodney King and then 9/11 – that cost me a lot of money. But I wanted to keep it going. I invested money just to keep it going.

Nazario: His tenacity paid off. Over time Cano gave Mariachi music an extreme makeover. He replaced with dignity the old image of a Cantina singer holding a cerveza and cigarette – then he moved the folkloric performers into high society.

Cano: We took the Mariachis to the concert halls: The Orange County Performing Arts Center, Royce Hall, The Music Center – all over the country. The Chicago Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center.

Nazario: Along the way, Nati Cano won the federal government's highest award in folk and traditional art, The National Heritage Fellowship. The band he sings and plays with, Los Camperos, shares one Grammy and was nominated for another. It's recorded three CDs on the Smithsonian's Folkways record label. That's like having an artifact in the country's national museum.

And Los Camperos de Nati Cano was one of several mariachi groups that collaborated with Linda Ronstadt on her first Spanish-language CD, "Canciones de Mi Padre," or "My Father's Songs." Cano's favorite cut is, "Hay Unos Ojos," or "There Are Some Eyes."

[Linda Ronstadt song]

Nazario: Cano couldn't duplicate his musical success in the business world. Although Los Angeles City officials designated the building that houses La Fonda on Wilshire Boulevard a local historic-cultural landmark in 1981, Cano says he's spent the last five years fighting with the building's new owners for a monthly lease he could afford.

Cano: We were paying $5900. Then they raised it to $12,000. More than double. Then they come back to me, instead of 12, it's $18,000. I said, "Forget it."

Manuel Mesa: I would bend over backwards for them to make it happen so that they could stay.

Nazario: Developer Manuel Mesa denies that the clash with Cano is about money. He says he and a few business partners bought the Spanish style building five years ago largely because La Fonda is one of his favorite places to eat. It's also in the Westlake/MacArthur Park redevelopment zone.

Since the Metro Red Line stop opened about 15 years ago, the city has pumped millions of dollars into cleaning up the park. Renters now pay top dollar to live in renovated live/work lofts with downtown skyline views. Manuel Mesa says it's time for La Fonda to evolve with its new surroundings.

Mesa: We can continue to have the dinner, and maybe some Sunday brunch, as well. But, perhaps also, a nice lounge so that after dinner and the last show, it can be a place where people meet and socialize and still enjoy the venue.

Nazario: Mesa says other entrepreneurs have offered him the going rate of $18,000 a month for the space La Fonda's occupied all these years. But he wants Cano to stay. Councilman Ed Reyes represents the zone that includes the restaurant. He says he might be able to dip into city coffers to help the two businessmen reach an agreement.

Ed Reyes: I could not make commitments at this time to tell you we'll induce and bring in X amount of dollars to fill the gap. But I wish I would have had the opportunity to look at this business transaction, because I think it means a lot. I really do.

Nazario: With less than a week before his lease expires, Nati Cano says it's too late to change plans and jeopardize deals he might work out elsewhere. He vows that L.A. hasn't seen the end of Los Camperos de Nati Cano. The band plans to tour through the holidays. Then come the New Year, the Southland's most notable mariachi band expects to take center stage at a new venue. Cano won't say much more for now, except that it'll be close to Staples Center.