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A look back at Lalo’s nightclub, once the hangout of East LA
A Pizza Hut is now in the same spot where Lalo’s Night Club was operated.
Few people who drive past a Pizza Hut on Cesar Chavez and Marianna today know that it was the hottest place in East LA for a brief period in the 50s and 60s. In the structure was Lalo’s nightclub, where Lalo Guerrero, the father of Chicano music, lived.
“Everyone went to Lalo,” recalls the oldest son of the musician and interpreter Dan Guerrero, who is himself a producer, author and performer. “Celebrities from Mexico would come and go to Lalo. Locals too. “
A black and white photo of the politician Ed Roybal on stage with the older Guerrero confirms this statement.
Lalo was born in Tucson in 1916 and began traveling in the 1930s to perform on Olvera Street. After the musician married his high school sweetheart, his family moved to East Los Angeles, where they eventually settled in a house on McDonnell Avenue.
Guerrero and his band toured the Southwest twice a year. The rest of the time he played in the Paramount Ballroom in Boyle Heights.
In 1955, Guerrero had a huge hit with “The Ballad of Pancho Sánchez,” a parody of the theme song from the television series “Davy Crockett”, which sold half a million times. It was one of many songs that recorded Mexican-American life in the United States.
With the money from Pancho Sánchez, he opened his own club. “My dad and mom decided why we make the Paramount people rich,” said Dan.
Having no business experience, the guerreros worked with a Spaniard who ran other nightclubs. This turned out to be a disaster and the guerreros went out of business. Lalo’s stayed open, but without his headliner of the same name it flopped.
A souvenir photo album from Lalo Guerrero’s Club.
A few years later, the Guerreros decided to restart the club on what was then Brooklyn Avenue themselves.
“Lalo’s as we know it opened on October 27, 1960,” said Dan. It was only open Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons – for tardedas. There was an entrance fee and a strict dress code. His father chatted, his mother Margaret ran the club.
“The second time they opened that door, that was it. They couldn’t get into this place. It was full every minute it was open, ”Dan said.
One of his favorite memories is celebrating his 21st birthday in 1961 – the first time he was allowed to visit his father’s club. His friends Carlos Almaraz and Frank Romero, who became important Chicano painters, can be seen with him in a picture from another visit.
Unfortunately the club closed in 1963 when his parents divorced and Lalo couldn’t run the place on his own.
Dan said it was hard to think of Lalo Guerrero’s legacy without remembering East Los Angeles and those years at Lalo.
“My father wasn’t just one [celebrity]People loved him, ”he said. “Everyone felt at home at Lalo. It was the hub. It was short lived, but it was excellent. “
Dan Guerrero, third from right, with a group of friends, including artists Carlos Almaraz and Frank Romero, at his father’s club.
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COVID RESOURCES / UPDATE
COVID cases rise to over 20,000 in East Los
The number of COVID-19 deaths continued to rise in Los Angeles County on Tuesday, although there are signs across the state that hospital admissions are easing. Health officials have warned the apparent slowdown in people hospitalized with the virus does not mean the dangerous surge that began in November has ended.
In East Los Angeles, the number of new cases increased by nearly 2,000 in the past seven days, topping the 20,000 mark this week.
Here are the latest East LA numbers:
- 200 new cases were reported on Tuesday.
- As of Tuesday, a total of 20,323 cases had been reported in the community.
- 29 new deaths have been reported in the past seven days. The total number of deaths is now 221.
East LA Hospital with high percentage of COVID cases
An East LA hospital had one of the highest percentages of COVID-19 patients in LA County, according to a review of data released last month the LA Times. According to the federal government, 66% of patients at East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital had COVID for the week ending December 24. In comparison, 43% of hospital patients across the county have had COVID cases. The story concluded that facilities in “low-income, densely populated, and non-white communities are hardest hit and faced with the greatest challenge of caring for” coronavirus patients “.
County to provide “hero money” to supermarket and drugstore employees
East Los Angeles grocery and drugstore employees may earn another $ 5 soon if a proposed county ordinance is finally approved this month. reports the LA Times. The proposed regulation would oblige employers in areas with no legal personality to make what is known as a “hero payment” for the dangers they face in the coronavirus pandemic. This applies to employees of companies that are traded on the stock exchange or have at least 300 employees nationwide and more than 10 employees per store.
NOTITAS / NEWS LETTERS
The ‘Night Stalker’ series looks back on the serial killer captured in East LA
The four-part series “The Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial KillerToday’s premiere on Netflix will focus on LA County detectives investigating a string of murders Richard Ramírez committed in the mid-1980s. The series culminates in his capture on the streets of East LA.
According to news from that period, after getting off a bus in downtown LA on August 31, 1985 and being identified in Boyle Heights by his mug shot on the front pages of all newspapers, Ramírez came across and was discovered by some backyards in East LA beat him to neighbors on Hubbard Street before LAPD officers caught up with him. He was charged, convicted, and sentenced to death of 13 murders, but died in a hospital of natural causes in 2013. The Los Angeles Times visited the neighborhood where he was caught and spoke to neighbors who witnessed the capture.
CRIME / SECURITY
2020 was twice as deadly as 2019 in East LA
According to the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, East LA had more than twice the number of murders committed in 2020 than the previous year. It lists 9 murders in 2019 and 18 in 2020. However, the report has not been updated and now includes two December incidents: the death of 22-year-old David Castillo on December 21, and the murder of a man who was shot in a driveway on Clela Ave. He was later identified as 30-year-old Daniel Rivera.
The number of murders is the highest since 2008, when 23 were reported in east LA.
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Antonio Mejías Rentals
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