LAUNDROMAT TO MOVE IN TIA CHUCHA'S CULTURAL CAFE LOSES ITS LONGTIME HOME BASE.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer

SYLMAR -- Since ``the big news,'' the coffee's become harder to swallow at Tia Chucha's Cafe and Cultural Center.

The neighborhood teenagers, the retired, those who just want to cuddle up with a good book after work are trying to remain calm.

But in a place like Tia Chucha's, where sitting in isolation is not tolerated and socializing is encouraged, the big news can't be avoided forever: The cafe's owners were told just after New Year's Day that they must leave by March.

The corner space in a Glenoaks Boulevard strip mall that has hosted dances and concerts, poets and writers for more than five years will be taken over, the entire structure razed and replaced with a high-tech laundromat.

``Cultural places like this one, they are losing their spaces,'' said co-owner Luis Rodriguez, the internationally best-selling author of ``Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.''

If those days as a troubled youth in East Los Angeles seemed difficult, relocating the cafe will be tougher, Rodriguez said, because the Sylmar neighborhood has come to mean so much.

``We had a vision for this place; we saw a need,'' Rodriguez said. ``We proved that a place like this could work here.''

Co-owner Trini Rodriguez, Luis' wife, said such cultural places bring a sense of wellness to the community, a place to let go of stress.

But the new owners of the Glenoaks Boulevard strip mall, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, may not see it that way.

``We're being replaced by machines,'' Trini Rodriguez said with a shrug of her shoulders.

In the northeast San Fernando Valley, where places like Sylmar and Pacoima get a bad reputation for gangs and shootings, Tia Chucha's opening became like the first blessed rain of the year that falls on a parched desert.

Devoted to the best of Chicano/Latino art, literature and theater, the cafe brought hard-to-find books, performances and dialogue to what Rodriguez called a culturally depressed area.

Sandra Cisneros, whose book ``The House on Mango Street'' has inspired millions, has read here. Chilean hip-hop artists have performed, too, drawing hundreds of youths. There are Aztec dancers on Mondays and film screenings on Wednesdays.

``It's really the only place in the Valley where you can find those things,'' said Jorge Garcia, professor of Chicano studies at California State University, Northridge.

``The word `unique' is overused these days, but this is an appropriate use of the word for Tia Chucha's,'' Garcia said. ``To have to struggle to keep such a place alive is sad.''

For all their sentimental value, places like Tia Chucha's have struggled for years, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

``Real estate is so valuable nowadays so this is not an unusual story, but it is a sad one,'' Kyser said. ``These smaller, unique places are losing to office buildings, industrial businesses and retail.''

Luis and Trini Rodriguez say they do not fault the new owners for wanting to make money. And they say anger is counterproductive. Instead, they will focus on finding a temporary spot before deciding on a permanent location, possibly in Pacoima.

In the meantime, the couple hopes the community will rally city officials by signing a petition and writing letters to help Tia Chucha's become a nonprofit center.

There also are several fundraisers planned, including a fifth-anniversary celebration on Feb. 17.

Some frequent patrons said they were shocked at the news that one of their favorite hangouts was about to leave, but some remain hopeful.

``There's a lot of positive energy in this place,'' said Leroy Hershkowitz, a 65-year-old Sylmar resident. ``For kids, for older people, it's like an extended mother and father.''

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Trini and Luis Rodriguez, owners of Tia Chucha's Cafe and Cultural Center, are faced with relocation of their business after their lease ended and the property's owner decided to replace it with a coin-operated laundry.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer