SANTA BARBARA — The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation (SBTHP) will present “Hotel Mariachi: Urban Space and Cultural Heritage in Los Angeles,” a lecture by Catherine L. Kurland and Evangeline Ordaz-Molina on Sept. 18 in the Presidio Chapel at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park, 123 E. Canon Perdidio St., Santa Barbara.
A special guest appearance by Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar co-presented with ¡Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara! will be presented at 5 p.m., with the lecture beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Hotel Mariachi is a book of photographs and essays depicting the mariachi musicians of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, and the eighty-year-old mariachi culture centered in the 1889 hotel on Mariachi Plaza. It is a story of valiant efforts by the community to preserve the cultural heritage of the mariachis and the historic hotel, built by great-grandparents of author Catherine Kurland, who traces her Latino family history back to the birth of Los Angeles, the group reported in a media release.
Courtesy image
In her Introduction, Evangeline Ordaz-Molina writes that documentary art photographer Miguel Gandert “joyously and heartbreakingly captures this dichotomy of a regal band at play and the harsh reality of the struggle for work.” Enrique Lamadrid offers an in-depth study of mariachi music, the lives of the musicians, and the role of southern California in the evolution of this musical form.
The authors will be signing copies of their books which will be available for purchase at the event.
Catherine L. Kurland left her hometown of Los Angeles for the East Coast after graduating from the University of Southern California, relocating to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2004. Before her return to the Spanish Southwest, Kurland lived in New York, where she co-owned Kurland•Zabar, the first gallery in the United States to specialize in the British Arts & Crafts movement. At about the time she began her graduate studies in historic preservation at the University of New Mexico, Kurland discovered that the architect-designed hotel in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, built by her great-grandparents in 1889, was still standing—now a residence for over 100 mariachi musicians! Her efforts to document the history of the imperiled hotel for a preservation designation led to Kurland’s discovery of her own deep roots in Spanish and Mexican Los Angeles—and Santa Barbara. Kurland is executive editor of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association’s award-winning journal, Chronicles of the Trail.
Evangeline Ordaz-Molina was born just blocks away from Hotel Mariachi in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. She was one of the four founders of the East LA Community Corporation (ELACC), the community-development nonprofit that bought and restored the 1889 hotel and served on the board for twelve years as vice president and general counsel. Ordaz-Molina is also a playwright whose works about Latino immigration have been produced throughout the Southwest. She is currently writing a play about Los Angeles, commissioned by the Center Theater Group (Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theater, Kirk Douglas Theater). A member of the California Bar, Ordaz-Molina practiced law in the areas of human rights, government benefits, and housing rights, and teaches constitutional law at California State University, Northridge.
Visit www.sbthp.org or call 805-965-0093 for more information.