An Angeleno family going back 3 generations here is considered ancient; but Theresa Chavez is a real Californio, dating back to 1771 when her family owned an original rancho ... How many Romanian restaurants can you name? Add Parsnip in Highland Park to the short list ... We say TOMATO, they say TOMATL: Adolfo Guzman Lopez helps us explore Nahuatl. (Photo: LA Public Library Shades of LA Collection)
Remembering Lucy Casado of Lucy's El Adobe: 'A pistol and a beloved mamacita'
Lucy Casado, proprietor of the iconic Lucy's El Adobe Cafe across from Paramount Studios, died Tuesday at the age of 91. Dan Guerrero, son of singer Lalo Guerrero, remembers her activism and her warmth.
"She was a pistol, you know, in a word, she was a pistol, a beautiful, beautiful lady. She was a major Chicano activist starting back in the 60s. I used to go to Lucy's all the time with my dad (pioneering mariachi artist) Lalo Guerrero, and they went way back. She was a nice mamacita, and they admired her for her activism. She was a smart cookie."
Dan also passed along word - reproduced verbatim below - from Linda Ronstadt, who hung out at Lucy's at met Jerry Brown there:
EL ADOBE WAS HOME BASE. WHEN WE’D RETURN TO LA AFTER A TOUR, WE’D GO TO LUCY’S ON OUR WAY HOME. LUCY OR PATTY WERE ALWAYS THERE TO WELCOME US HOME WITH A WARM SMILE AND GREAT FOOD.
So, on Cinco de Mayo, let's raise a glass - maybe one of Lucy's famous killer margaritas - to toast Lucy Casado.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story mistakenly said Ronstadt and Brown were married. We regret the error, but not the sentiment.
You think you're a longtime Angeleno? Theresa Chavez's family came here in 1771!
Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Theresa Chavez, a Californio, whose family owned tens of thousands of acres in Old LA. The land is gone, but she's now producing artistic director of About... Productions, which presents The Latin Wave, a series of productions and events looking the mainstream media's treatment of Latino culture. It's at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse from May 7 – May 21, and includes a revival of the play "They Shoot Mexicans, Don't They?," which opens May 18.
It's hard to imagine now, but Southern California was ranchos of thousands or tens of thousands of acres, owned by relatively small number of families who received the land as grants from the Spanish and Mexican governments. The ranchers were the Californios, whose names you know because they're place names now: Pico, Sepulveda, Feliz, Bandini, Duarte.
LISTEN: Pio Pico, a life so big he was buried twice!
These early Angelenos - who predate all but the Native Americans - still walk among us, their family histories told in colorful maps and ancient photos.
Take Theresa Chavez, for instance.
This was her family's home in downtown Los Angeles, which fell victim to the Hollywood Freeway:
Chavez is a playwright and producing artistic director of About... Productions. But her 3d great grandfather - son of a soldier in the New Spanish Army who arrived here in 1771 - was Don Antonio Maria Lugo, recipient of an initial 29,514 acres in 1810. According to the LA Public Library, "'El Viejo Lugo' gradually added vast properties, and it was said he could ride from San Diego to Sonoma, a distance of nearly 700 miles, without once leaving his own land."
"They were not living high on the hog," Chavez says of the Californios. "They worked their butts off. They grazed cattle for a hide and tallow industry that existed from here down into South America." Think of it as a modern American ranch or farming family with tracts of land, but little ready cash. "When California became annexed - even though the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo said everyone was going to hold onto the land that they had - of course that didn't happen." Add to that poorly drawn maps that didn't hold up in US courts, land sales, squatters, a broken treaty, fraud, and a changed economy. They were land rich and cash poor, and when we switched from a barter economy to a cash economy, they were forced to sell.
By the turn of the last century, the Lugo land holdings were down to 14 acres. But the memories lived on. "My mother was born in 1921," Chavez says, "and when she grew up, her cultural world was around other Californio families. And they still met, and they still socialized, and they still had this identification, even though it was at that point just a social and cultural identification. She had this very strong urgency to live and breathe it, and she passed that on to me."
I think of Chavez and the Californios a little as the displaced aristocrats of Europe ... kings, queens, princes, and princesses that live among us. Maybe they're renting out their castle as a B&B; maybe they're picking up the trash. I ask her, is she mad about losing all of what they had? "Am I ticked? It pisses me off that people were taken advantage of, that there were lies and breaking of treaties, and it was all a big manipulation, not done on the up-and-up."
Interestingly, as much as Chavez thinks about her heritage, when she travels around Southern California, she's thinking not just of the huge ranchos. Her awareness goes much deeper, and yours can, too.
"I got into this notion of the earth here and the embossing of the earth with Native American trails, which then became rancho boundaries, which then became a lot of our major streets: LA Cienega, Western, Wilshire, Sunset. Those major arteries are built from many of the rancho boundaries, which again are built upon American Indian trails."
Next week, we'll talk with Theresa Chavez about bringing back "They Shoot Mexicans, Don't They" at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, starting May 18. On the surface, it's about a film producer trying to make a silent movie of the fabled Mission Play, but it touches on deep issues of cultural identity, history, and family.
Off-Ramp Recommends: Supporting your local comic book shop
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Embrace your inner geek this weekend by celebrating Free Comic Book Day.
The annual tradition is held every first Saturday in May at participating comic book specialty shops. Each comic book store celebrates with various promotions and events. But in general, shops will be giving away one free comic for the event. Make sure to check participating stores before visiting.
Here are a few highlights in Los Angeles:
Comic City - 5703 E. Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles
Learn what inspired Sean Davis to create “Dead-Pooh,” a tale about a bear that looks a lot like Winnie the Pooh who fights crime in a costume that looks a lot like Marvel’s Deadpool. The third issue of "Dead-Pooh" dropped this week. Meet Sean in person, buy the comic, and get it signed. Candy Brionnes, creator of “Taco El Gato” will also be present to answer any of your catty questions.
Geoffrey’s Comics - 15900 Crenshaw Blvd., Gardena
One of the best deals is here. Geoffrey’s is distributing five free comic books per person. The first 30 people in line on Saturday will also get a free graphic novel. Inside the store everything is 20% off. And for a measly 50 cents pick up some books from Geoffrey’s outdoor sale.
A Shop Called Quest – 300 S. Santa Fe Ave., Los Angeles
A rotating schedule of creator signings might keep you busy all day – and if that wasn’t enough this shop will also be providing food for guests. People are encouraged to wear cosplay for Free Comic Book Day ... like it takes much encouragement. Some of the comic book creators present will be sketching attendees, so this is your chance to see what you would look like as a comic book character.
There are more than 15 shops participating in Southern California. You can check the shop locator for a participating comic shop near you.
How Santa Claus found a home along the 101 in Oxnard
“I believe in Santa Claus. There is a Christmas spirit –I really believe in that. He signifies the Christmas spirit of giving and working with people that need help.” – Mike Barber, Founder and Race Director for Santa to the Sea Race
He sees you when you’re driving … he knows if you’ve been speeding… so slow down for goodness sake.
If you have ever cruised along on the 101 you might have noticed Santa Claus doesn’t live in the North Pole. The jolly old elf lives in Oxnard in the form of a statue overlooking the north side of the freeway between Del Norte Boulevard and Rice Avenue.
The story starts in 1948 when a man named Patrick McKeon purchased a plot of land from a lima bean farmer in Carpinteria. He opened up a juice stand on the property. “Santa” towns like Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, and Santa Ynez inspired Patrick to name his land Santa Claus.
What comes next is a bit of a legend. It is said that during the 1950 Christmas season, Patrick was dressed up as Santa to attract tourists to his business. A man named Kenneth Vaughn saw Patrick in the suit and offered to build the statue on top of his business for $500.
The statue paved way for the area of Carpinteria known as Santa Claus Lane, a year-round winter wonderland that included a candy store, a toy store, and a bar called the Reindeer Room.
LISTEN: Strange Southern California statues – The story of Chicken Boy and Cock Bob.
Santa resided in Carpinteria for 53 years, but in 2003 his home was threatened. A real estate company purchased the property, and planned to demolish the statue.
Mike Barber, a long time resident of Oxnard and then-president of Garden Acres Mutual Water Company, wanted to ensure Santa would always have a home. “This was our original well site,” Mike says. “We had this vacant piece of property so we decided to step up to the plate and save Santa."
Santa made the journey 30 miles South on the 101 freeway to his current space in Oxnard, surrounded by other enchanted beings including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, two toy soldiers, and a snowman who likes to surf.
“Our last edition we did a couple years ago was Santa’s sleigh,” Mike says. “It’s a combination between a race car, sleigh, and rocket ship. It tells Santa where he is going… how much reindeer power he has left, how much Christmas spirit is out there. He can detect that.”
Mike is retired now, but in his own special way he is the Santa Claus of the community. In 2008, he founded Santa to the Sea, an annual race that starts at the Santa statue that goes right through the heart of Oxnard and ends at Channel Islands Harbor. The money raised by the non-profit is donated to local schools and charities. Mike says they have provided over 600 scholarships for students to attend Oxnard Community College. And, of course, every December the entire street in front of the Santa is closed, and children to line up to receive a gift from Santa himself.
“The change since he has been here has been amazing,” Mike says. “Ventura Boulevard here was in really bad shape. We had no sidewalks here… the city redid the streets here. I really don’t think that would have happened if it wasn’t for Santa Claus. It’s been a labor of love.”
"Avocado" is from Nahuatl and is the same word as "testicle"
The ancient language of the Aztecs is called Nahuatl, and English has borrowed more than a few words from it, including avocado and coyote. The indigenous language's cultural impact is one of the many reasons
speaking in Nahuatl. That, and the pre-Colombian language endures.
There are an estimated 13 million speakers of indigenous languages currently in Mexico. Carballo Mexico’s foremost living, indigenous poet. He was in Los Angeles several weeks ago to promote the USC art exhibit, "Montar La Bestia," which included art and writing inspired by immigrants’ dangerous journey north on the freight train through Mexico known as "La Bestia."
KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez chatted with John Rabe about a recent interview with Carballo.
Carballo has written books of poetry, hosts a show on indigenous issues on Mexican public television and is an ardent indigenous rights advocate, and he embodies the vitality and strength of the Nahuatl language. And he’s a living connection to a pre-Colombian past that’s a part of so many people who live in Southern California.
Even those without that link can appreciate cognate words like "tomato" and "coyote," which derive from Nahuatl. A more creative adaptation of a word is "avocado," which in Nahuatl translates to "testicle."
Aguacatl. The origin of the word is interesting, and has a lot to do with the shape of the fruit. Any guesses? Aguacatl is also the Nahuatl word for testicle.
The fact that these words are still in play is valuable to poet Carballo, who weaves them together in his poetry. He explains that in Nahuatl, that the word for heart, “yolotl,” is also used to describe sadness. While the word for headache is “Tsonkuakualotl.” I have a headache. Lopez tells Rabe these are the combinations of words we uses to express his feelings on Donald Trump’s anti-Mexico rhetoric, the separation of immigrant families in the United States, their fear of deportation, and generally the conflicts around the world are giving him a feeling of ni-yotl-kua-kualotl, the feeling of a very deep heart ache.
Try Romanian food (maybe for the first time) at Parsnip in Highland Park
New restaurant Parsnip in Highland Park is one of the few Romanian restaurants in the greater Los Angeles area. So unless you have intimate knowledge of Romanian culture, you may not have tried the food. At the risk of sounding uncultured, Rosalie Atkinson went to eat her first Romanian meal and chat with Chef Anca Caliman about her new spot's inspiration.
What distinguishes Romanian food from other food? Chef Anca says the food pays tribute to the country's working class. She says, "It's a combination of these stews and braises, things that are kind of making the most with what you have. To make stick-to-your-ribs that you have after working all day. But then also a good balance of fresh... fire-roasted vegetable salads."
While she was growing up in Romania, Anca says she learned to cook by watching her parents then embellishing. She says, "I was always the helper in the kitchen. These are [recipes] that I remember very fondly so they all have my own spin on things. There is no written down recipes. So that's what this food is: it's the foundation of the family recipes plus everything I've learned in life."
Most of the options on the menu are Romanian peasant dishes, for a good reason. Anca says:
Even though I grew up in a city in Romania, both of my grandparents on my mother's and father's side are country people. They have animals and land to till. They definitely grow their own vegetables. My fondest food memories- that's where they come from. Hanging out with my grandma, picking tomatoes and making a salad.
After Lemon Poppy Kitchen in Glassell Park, this is Anca's second restaurant. When it came to naming this one, Anca wanted to promote the "unsung hero" root veggie of Romanian cooking. She says, "They tend to be in everything but never in the foreground. I thought they deserved their time in the sun.
When it comes to other Romanian restaurants around LA... it's slim pickings. Anca says, "There's a place in East Hollywood called Sabina's* and there's one in Anaheim called Dunarea." But she says they are far more traditional than Parsnip.
But what is Anca's favorite Romanian dish? She says it is a simple, yet delicious soup. She says, "When I'd go home from college, I'd always want... fasole cu challan. It's a bean soup with ham hocks but again- complex flavors, slow cooked beans, ham... I like to eat it with toast and lots of raw garlic, so I save it for when I don't have to go anywhere and face people."
Parsnip opened in March and is located at 5623 York Blvd. in Highland Park.
*According to Yelp, Sabina's has closed.
Pio Pico: A life as big as the 2-time governor's needs 2 graves
"What are we to do then? Shall we remain supine, while these daring strangers are overrunning our fertile plains, and gradually outnumbering and displacing us? Shall these incursions go on unchecked, until we shall become strangers in our own land?" -- Pio Pico
Rags-to-riches-to-rags stories are common in the fabric of Southern California history. They're"quintessential," says Carolyn Christian of the Friends of Pio Pico.
Pio Pico, the last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule, was a revolutionary who at one point made the missions forfeit their land. He also bet tens of thousands of dollars on horse races, but at the time of his death, couldn't afford his own grave.
Pio de Jesus Pico was born on May 5, 1801 at the mission San Gabriel Arcángel. California in this era had a tightly stratified caste system with indigenous people at the bottom, Mestizos (Mexicans with European blood) in the middle, and Spanish rancheros at the top, making up a mere 3% of Alta California's total population, according to historian Paul Bryan Gray. Pico himself came from Spanish, African, Native American, and Italian descent, but thanks to his father's service in the Spanish army, he had the potential to be part of the landowning class.
(Pio Pico, 1858. UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library)
"The elite became the elite because they were the descendants of the original soldiers sent to California in 1769," says Gray. "The way things worked was that if you had an ancestor who did military service, or if you did military service yourself, you would get a land grant."
Eligibility was important, but availability came first. The Catholic Church controlled most of California's arable land through the missions. By the 1830s, upheaval was fomenting throughout the ranchero class, who were eager to expand their holdings by secularizing the mission lands for use by civilians. Pio Pico found himself at the head of a small rebellion and met the anti-secular Governor Manuel Victoria in combat at the Battle of Cahuenga Pass on Dec. 5, 1831.
Victoria was one of the very few injured in the battle, and didn’t return to his post. Pico "was elected to the Assemblea, what we'd call the state Assembly today," says Gray. He held office for 20 days in 1831 until the Mexican government pushed him out. The popular movement of secularization had taken hold though, and Pico and his brother Andres secured massive tracts of land in the San Diego and San Fernando areas, and after the Mexican-American War, in the San Gabriel Valley.
Pico married his wife, Maria Ygnacia Alvarado, in 1834. The two never had children together, but adopted two daughters. Carolyn Christian says that Pico fathered these children with other women, and legitimized them through adoption. Maria Ygnacia was the niece of Juan Bautista Alvarado, the Monterrey-born governor from the north who held office from 1836 to 1842. When Alvarado was succeeded by Mexico’s Manuel Micheltorena, Alvarado and Pico joined forces with another former governor, Jose Castro, in an uprising that culminated in the Battle of La Providencia in 1845.
Governor Micheltorena was overthrown and Pico retook the governor’s mansion, this time with Mexico’s blessing. One year later, the United States declared the Mexican-American War, and Gray says Pico accomplished little in this time. Pico had written about the increasing throngs of settlers from the Southern states coming to California leading up to the war:
"What are we to do then? Shall we remain supine, while these daring strangers are overrunning our fertile plains, and gradually outnumbering and displacing us? Shall these incursions go on unchecked, until we shall become strangers in our own land?"
"Pio Pico actually left California, went down to Mexico, and there are a couple stories why," says Christian. "Some people say he was a coward and he was running away. Other people say, no, he was going to down to Mexico to get reinforcements to come up and fight the Americans. The other reason why people think that he left is because if you have a head of government, and they're captured, you have a lot of negotiating power. So if they're gone and they can't be captured, that helps from having something leveraged against you."
Mexico ceded California and the rest of the Southwest with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in February 1848, signed at the Cahuenga Pass — the very site of both of Pico’s rises to governance. Pico returned to Los Angeles the same year.
"When he returned to California, he announced, 'I'm back, I'm governor of California.' And of course he was immediately thrown in jail," laughs Christian. Pico was bailed out by William Workman, says Christian, and became a proud member of the new Californian society. He was elected to the L.A. City Council, but never took office, says Gray. He continued building up a fortune in land holdings and gained a windfall from cattle raising because of the Gold Rush's high beef demands.
Maria Ygnacia Pico died in 1854, but Pio Pico would live on for another 40 years. In the 1860s and '70s he had two more children — sons — and in 1870 he made his last grand business venture: The Pico House. It was L.A.'s first three-story building and luxury hotel, with 33 suites, designed by architect Ezra Kysor, and still stands at El Pueblo de Los Angeles. Pico lost the hotel to the San Francisco Savings and Loan Company in 1876.
(L: Pico House, est. 1870, 400 block of LA's Main Street. R: Merced Theatre, erected 1870, L.A's first playhouse. Konrad Summers/Flickr Creative Commons)
Pico’s resources dwindled swiftly in the 1880s. His ranch was damaged by floods, he gambled away as much as $25,000 on a single race, and his son and translator Ranulfo was murdered for leaving a woman at the altar.
"He never bothered to learn English, so he couldn't read the deeds and mortgages and other documents given to him," says Gray, and Christian adds, "There was a lawyer by the name of Bernard Cohn, who actually swindled a lot of the Californios out of their land. He did it by presenting them with what they thought were loans, and they were actually signing over their ranchos... It went all the way to the California Supreme Court." Gray calls this the last in a long string of risk-taking by the ex-governor, "and as a result he lost all his land in Whittier and finally died in total poverty because of his negligence."
Pico died on Sept. 11, 1894 at 93 years old. He was buried at the first Calvary Cemetery, L.A.'s original Catholic cemetery, which was founded in 1844 and condemned due to massive disrepair in 1920. Pico and Maria Ygnacia Alvarado were interred in an above-ground tomb with cast iron markers, and at one point Alvarado's skeleton was grave-robbed and left strewn some 50 feet away, according to the L.A. Downtown News. The cemetery and most of its occupants were relocated to Calvary's current location in East L.A. in the '20s.
(Pico Family tomb at Old Calvary Cemetery. LAPL/Security Pacific National Bank Collection)
Cathedral High School now occupies the site the original Calvary Cemetery stood on. Pio Pico was moved not to East L.A., but to the Workman-Temple Homestead in what was known as Rancho La Puente. Pico had granted William Workman massive land tracts for serving in the Mexican military during the Mexican-American War, and when his great grandson Thomas Temple found oil on his family's property, Workman's grandson Walter Temple built a mausoleum for friends and family — which is Pio Pico's final resting place.
Visit Pio Pico's tomb at the Homestead Museum, which is giving a special presentation and tour at the Walter P. Temple Memorial Mausoleum on Sunday, Oct. 25.