There are sure first names which are additionally companies that faucet into the Angeleno collective unconsciousness and produce a smile of familiarity even to those that’ve by no means patronized the place.
Tommy’s Burgers, particularly. Frederick’s of Hollywood. Phillippe the Original. Nate’n Al’s. Lupe’s and Lucy’s.
And, after all, Leonardo’s.
The nightclub chain with 5 spots throughout Southern California has entertained patrons since 1972. Its cumbia nights, Mexican regional music performances and a common air of puro pinche parri bridged the hole within the cultural lifetime of Latino L.A. between the times of the Million Dollar Theater and right this moment’s corrido tumbado stars.
Its namesake, Leonardo Lopez, got here to Santa Monica from Mexico within the late Nineteen Sixties, at age 17, to work as a dishwasher and proceeded to create a cultural empire.
On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council honored him in a celebration that mirrored the enjoyment and variety — however particularly the resilience — of Latino LA.
His members of the family rely no less than 40 companies amongst them, together with eating places, banquet halls, live performance venues, equestrian sports activities groups, political corporations that work Southern California’s corridors of energy, and the Pico Rivera Sports Arena, Southern California’s cathedral of Mexican horse tradition. They had been one of many major forces within the 2023 combat that carved out exemptions for conventional Mexican horse competitions equivalent to charrería and escaramuza when the L.A. City Council banned rodeos.
“Our household is sort of a pyramid, with each individual supporting one another at each stage,” mentioned Leonardo’s son, Fernando. “And my dad is on the very prime.”
A resplendent celebration
He and about 40 different family went to Friday’s City Council assembly to see their patriarch acknowledged. They strode by City Hall’s august corridors in charro outfits and Stetsons, berets and hipster glasses, leopard-print blouses and sharp ties — the range of the Mexican American expertise in an period the place too many individuals need to demonize them.
Leonardo was probably the most resplendent of all of them, sporting an outfit along with his initials embroidered on his sleeves and his again. A silver cross on his billowing crimson necktie gleamed as a lot as his smile.
“You work and work and work to hope you do one thing good, and it’s a blessing when others acknowledge you for it,” Lopez informed me in Spanish as we waited in a packed convention room for the council assembly to start out. He gestured to everybody. “But that is the true blessing in my life.”
Sitting on the head of an extended desk, Lopez doted on his grandson but in addition greeted well-wishers like Esbardo Carreño. He’s a historian who works for the federal government of Durango, the state the place Lopez was born in 1950.
“Don Leonardo got here with an even bigger imaginative and prescient than others,” Carreño mentioned in Spanish. “But he by no means left his individuals again dwelling,” noting how Lopez has funded restoration tasks in Durango’s eponymous capital, a welcome arch on the entrance to the entrepreneur’s hometown of La Noria and extra.
“My tío and pop and my different tíos made it in L.A. as a result of there was no Plan B,” mentioned Lopez’s nephew, Lalo Lopez. He was shepherding friends towards his uncle whereas additionally speaking up a fundraiser later that night on the Sports Arena for L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. “That’s a lesson all us youngsters discovered quick.”
Spanish-language reporters pulled Don Leonardo into the City Hall press room for an impromptu convention, the place he talked about his profession and provided child-rearing recommendation.
“Get them busy early,” he joked, “in order that they don’t have that free time to do unhealthy issues.”
Lopez motioned to Fernando and his son Fernando Jr. — each carrying charro fits — to affix him on the podium.
“I bought them to comply with me” to be pleased with their Mexican heritage. “Today, it’s the reverse — now I comply with them!”
Councilmember Monica Rodriguez then grabbed Lopez. The assembly was about to start out.
Always the sharpest-dressed member of the council, Rodriguez didn’t disappoint with a taupe-toned tejana that completely complemented her gray-streaked hair, black-framed glasses and white outfit.
Her introduction of Lopez was even higher.
“His areas have created a spot the place we [Latinos] might be authentically who we’re,” mentioned Rodriguez, who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley. She praised Lopez’s life’s work as an necessary balm and corrective “at a time particularly when our neighborhood is underneath assault.”
“I need to thanks, Don Leonardo, for being that instance of how we will actually be the drive of resilience and power within the wake of adversity,” the council member concluded. “It’s a reminder to everybody who’s feeling down that we are going to persevere.”
Lopez provided just a few phrases of thanks in English, tipping his sombrero to council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who had beforehand honored him in 2017 when every council member acknowledged an immigrant entrepreneur of their district.
Harris-Dawson returned the respect.
“You are such angels on this metropolis — L.A. is just not L.A. with out the Lopez household,” he mentioned, noting how two Leonardo’s stood in his South L.A. district and “y’all by no means left” at the same time as different stay music venues did. Harris-Dawson informed attendees how the Lopez household had lengthy catered jazz festivals and youth sports activities leagues with out ever asking for something in return.
“The solely time I’ve seen you closed was that weekend of the horrible ICE raids,” Harris-Dawson mentioned. “And you all had been again the following week able to go and also you had safety out. … Thank you all for treating us like household.”
The Lopez clan gathered round their jefe on the podium for one closing picture op. Doctors and contractors, retirees and excessive schoolers: an all-American household and as Angeleno as they arrive. See ustedes quickly at — the place else? — Leonardo’s.
Today’s prime tales
Colorado River water flows within the Central Arizona Project aqueduct beside a neighborhood in Phoenix.
(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)
The dwindling Colorado River
- A bunch of consultants say Western states urgently want to chop water use to avert a deepening disaster on the Colorado River.
- The river’s main reservoirs are lower than one-third full, and one other dry winter would push reservoirs towards critically low ranges.
- They say the Trump administration ought to act to make sure reductions in water use.
Trump’s $1.2-billion name to remake UCLA
- A Times overview of the Trump administration’s settlement proposal to UCLA lays out sweeping calls for on quite a few features of campus life.
- The authorities has fined UCLA practically $1.2 billion to settle allegations of civil rights violations.
- Hiring, admissions and the definitions of gender are among the many areas the Department of Justice seeks to vary.
A looming combat over vaccines
- After Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ousted vaccine consultants on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California is now making its personal vaccine steerage.
- The CDC is not a trusted supply for vaccine steerage, some consultants now say.
- California and medical teams are urging extra individuals to get vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 in contrast with the Trump administration.
Your utility payments
The Emmys had been final evening
What else is happening
Commentary and opinions
- There shall be cooling in all L.A. leases by 2032. Here’s how contributors Sophia M. Charan and Hye Min Park counsel you survive the warmth till then.
- Wait, what occurred to saving the kids? California columnist Anita Chabria factors out that California congressmen dodge the problem.
This morning’s must-read
Other must-reads
For your downtime
(Amir Mrzae / For The Times)
Going out
Staying in
And lastly … your picture of the day
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Today’s nice picture is from Times photographer Allen J. Schaben of ctor Kathy Bates on the crimson carpet on the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. See Allen’s images from the awards present right here.
Have a fantastic day, from the Essential California workforce
Jim Rainey, employees author
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, viewers intern
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday author
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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