FounderBios
--- Poem To Tia Chucha
Tia
Chucha's Centro Cultural and Bookstore is a dream of
community empowerment. Three San Fernando residents--Maria
Trinidad Rodriguez, Enrique Sanchez, and Luis J. Rodriguez--came
together in November 2000 and created a partnership to make
this dream come true. On December 15, 2001 this dream became
a reality when we opened our doors to the public.
At Tia Chucha's we provide great books on Xicano history
and literature, young adult fiction, as well as indigenous,
contemporary and social commentary issues, Spanish-language,
and bilingual children's books. We believe that every mind
is precious and that books and the arts can save lives.
We also provide a space for community Open Mic nights, for
musical performances, for theater and performance pieces,
for author readings and signings, for documentaries and
feature films of social relevance, and great dialogue on
the pressing issues of the day.
And to help serve this
low home-computer usage area, last fall we opened an Internet
Café with access to the Internet, emails and work
files.
In June of 2003, we
leased the space next door to the Café to establish
our not-for-profit wing, Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural. In
six-months, we've had workshops on Aztec Dance, theater,
music, art/sculpture, paper maché, gourd-making,
flute-making, film making, comedy, as well as a women's
natural healing circle and a young man's healing circle.
We aim to create a
space where the community can dialogue, share ideas, organize,
and get skillful in the various communicative and visual
arts. We want a place where families can be stimulated to
read books, participate in intellectual activity, and are
surrounded by the healing power of art and words--a place
where creativity can be brought fully to bear and where
we can positively transform the quality of our individual
lives as well as the lives of our diverse communities.
Tia Chucha's Centro
Cultural & Bookstore is a place that is long overdue.
Our
mission is as follows:
Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore is a cultural
space with books, workshops, art exhibits, presentations,
readings, family events, performances. We draw on the creative
spirit inherent in each person, family and community.
Tia Chucha's Centro Cultura & Bookstore
cultivates the practice and discipline associated with writing,
art, music, performance, and technology in the large Chicano/Mexicano/Central
American communities of greater Los Angeles, in particular
the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
Tia Chucha's invites Los Angeles'
diverse groups and individuals to appreciate and value the
art, literature, theater, song, and ideas emanating from
our communities; to have an exchange of culture and ideas
in an engaging and harmonious setting; and to create a gathering
place of elders, mentors, teachers, parents, teens, and
children as the foundation for truly genuine, whole and
vibrant communities.
Tia
Chucha's will be a positive and visionary force, to enhance
what is decent, compassionate and just in our communities
while reconnecting to our ancestral roots and teachings
in the vortex of great social transitions and technological
development.
If you
want to contribute to this vision, please join with us.
Contact Information:
Tia Chucha's Cultural Center & Bookstore
10258 Foothill Blvd.
Lake View Terrace, CA 91342
Phone: (818) 898-1479
Fax: (818) 898-1489
Email: info@tiachucha.com
Website: www.tiachucha.com
FOUNDER
BIOS
Enrique Sanchez, Maria Trinidad Rodriquez, Luis J. Rodriquez
Maria Trinidad Rodriguez
Maria Trinidad, known as “Trini,” is a long-time
resident of the Northeast San Fernando Valley, having grown
up in Pacoima with 11 siblings and two strong traditional
parents. She graduated from San Fernando High School and
California State University, Northridge, Cum Laude; she
later took graduate courses towards a Reading Specialist
Master’s Degree at Cal State L.A. A credentialed bilingual
teacher, she taught in both the Glendale and Los Angeles
Unified School Districts. In 1983, she moved to Chicago
to work as an editor/writer for the Tribuno del Pueblo.
She later served as a Cook County, Illinois court interpreter.
In 1988, she married Luis J. Rodriguez. Soon after she helped
organize and manage his writing and lecturing work. In the
summer of 2000, Trini, Luis and their two sons, Ruben Joaquin
and Luis Jacinto, returned to the Northeast San Fernando
Valley. She has been managing Tia Chucha’s for three
years. They now live in the city of San Fernando.
To The Top
Enrique Sanchez
A long-time activist from the early days of the Xicano Movement
and the End Barrio Warfare Coalition, Enrique Sanchez has
been a homeowner and business owner, based in San Fernando,
since the early 1980’s. He ran a plumbing business
for many years before embarking on community development
projects throughout the state of California. He has also
been active in a number of political campaigns and community
projects to advance the Xicano/Mexicano community’s
standing in politics, the arts and business. His wife, Maria
“Nani” Sanchez, is Trini’s sister and
also a leader in the community. Nani has also been instrumental
in making Tia Chucha’s an inviting space by taking
on outreach, publicity and other work at the café
. They have five children—Enrique, Jr.; Luzmaria;
Esperanza; Cristal; and Jose. Luzmaria and Esperanza also
contribute their talents to making Tia Chucha’s a
special place.
To The Top
Luis J. Rodriguez
(www.luisjrodriguez.com)
Luis J. Rodriguez is one of this country’s leading
Xicano writers. He has eight published books in poetry,
children’s literature, memoir, nonfiction, and fiction,
including the international bestseller Always Running, La
Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA. His most recent books include
Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times and
The Republic of East LA: Stories. He also has a CD of music
and poetry called “My Name’s Not Rodriguez”
from Dos Manos Records (CDbaby.com). Music of the Mill,
was published in the fall of 2004 by Rayo Books/HarperCollins.
Luis has received numerous awards for his literary and community
work, including as one of fifty “Unsung Heroes of
Compassion” from around the world, presented by His
Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
To The Top
Tia
Chucha poem by Luis J. Rodriguez
Every few years Tia Chucha would visit the family
in a tornado of song and open us up
as if we were an overripe avocado.
She was a dumpy, black-haired
creature of upheaval who often came unannounced
with a bag of presents, including homemade
perfumes and colognes that smelled something like
rotting fish on a hot day at the tuna cannery.
They said she was crazy. Oh sure, she once ran out naked
to catch the postman with a letter that didn't belong to
us.
I mean, she had this annoying habit of boarding city buses
and singing at the top of her voice—one bus driver
even refused to go on until she got off.
But crazy?
To me, she was the wisp of the wind's freedom,
a music-maker who once tried to teach me guitar
but ended up singing and singing,
me listening, and her singing
until I put the instrument down
and watched the clock click the lesson time away.
I didn't learn guitar, but I learned something
about her craving for the new, the unbroken,
so she could break it. Periodically she banished herself
from the family—and was the better for it.
I secretly admired Tia Chucha.
She was always quick with a story,
another "Pepito" joke or a hand-written lyric
that she would produce regardless of the occasion.
She was a despot of desire,
uncontainable as a splash of water
on a varnished table.
I wanted to remove the layers
of unnatural seeing,
the way Tia Chucha beheld
the world, with first eyes,
like an infant who can discern
the elixir within milk.
I wanted to be one of the prizes
she stuffed into her rumpled bag.
To The Top
