The group behind Xispas Magazine first met in October of 2002 with a vision to create something special and vital for the Xicano community. Presently Xispas’ staff includes Sergio Hernandez, a longtime community activist, cartoonist and artist who was also on the Con Safos editorial board in the 1970s and 1980s; educator and community leader Diane Hernandez; award-winning music producer, filmmaker and head of Ramparts Records, Hector Gonzalez; his wife and co-Ramparts Record owner Lava Gonzalez; award-winning TV producer and documentarian Jim Velarde; writers Alisha M. Rosas, James Rodrigo Retana and Rubi Mendoza; artist and webmaster Mark Vallen, and others. Luis J. Rodriguez, who was an editor/publisher of XismeArte in the early 1980s in East Los Angeles, will serve as Xispas’ editor. Xispas magazine grew out of Tia Chucha’s Café Cultural - a bookstore, café, art gallery and performance space that has become a major cultural gathering place and arts center in the Northeast San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.

Acclaimed Xicano writer Luis J. Rodriguez, his wife Trini Rodriguez and their brother-in-law Enrique Sanchez created the Tia Chucha’s to fill a badly-needed void —where some 400,000 people reside, around 80 percent Xicano, Mexican and Central American, although there were no movie houses, bookstores or decent cultural centers until Tia Chucha’s opened their doors in December of 2001—and this in the so-called “Entertainment/Media” center of the world. Tia Chucha’s Café Cultural features a full coffee bar and café; a specialized bookstore with cultural, historical, political, and literary books, including a great selection of bilingual children’s books; an art gallery; a performance space; and an Internet Café. In June of 2003, the Café leased space next door to inaugurate its not-for-profit arm called Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural. Although it is a separate entity from the Café with its own board of directors and accounting system, the Centro and Café work together to enhance the intellectual, aesthetic, cultural, social and spiritual life of our communities.

In the two years since Tia Chucha’s Café Cultural opened, there have been great events with people such as acclaimed novelist Sandra Cisneros, author/poet Ruben Martinez; East LA’s famous band Quetzal; Native American poet/musician John Trudell; John Densmore of the Doors; Chusma, the Chicano comedy theater group; Veteran Chicano poet Jose Montoya; teatro maestra Raquel Salinas; best selling author Yxta Maya Murray; the incomparable writer Victor Villasenor; the Jarocho band from Veracruz, Mexico (and featured on the “Frida” soundtrack) Los Cojolites, and many other great performers, poets, writers, singers and thinkers. Tia Chucha’s was the site of the 9Th Rock-A-Mole Music and Art Festival and one of the Mosaic Foundation’s “Poetics of Peace,” featuring Michael Meade, Orland Bishop, Luis Rodriguez, and others.

Tia Chucha’s now boosts a Danza Azteca group on Mondays; film night on Wednesdays; an open mic/spoken word night on Fridays; art, music and writing workshops on Saturdays; a film documentation project for youth; a Pena Cultural for our Spanish-speaking patrons (the last Friday of the month); and regular art receptions, author readings and book signings. The non-profit Centro Cultural also has a number of resident groups, including the E.A.R.Th. Theater Company; Elusive Minds Films; Tonantzin Del Valle, a women’s natural healing circle; Circulo do Jovenes Nobles, a young man’s healing circle; Chusma Chicano Comedy group; the Hazze Hip Hop Culture Youth Workshops; and Danza Azteca. In addition, the Centro will work on obtaining grants, donations and benefits for expanded arts programming; computers for computer literacy workshops; a film and editing studio; a radio studio, a TV and CD production studio, and workshops in film, theater, computers, music, and literature. Resident and invited artists have included Juan Pueblo, master painter, sculpture, poet and musician; Alejandro La Borde, guitarist and singer; Ariel Robello, poet/writer and renown performance artist; and Luis Ruan, flute player and guitarist.

The Centro will also house a number of specific projects. One is Tia Chucha Press, an award-winning poetry press started in Chicago in 1989 by Luis J. Rodriguez that has published some 35 books and a CD; Xispas Magazine, which will launch as an online publication until we can expand into a full hardcover publication; and Dos Manos Records, which produces CDs of new voices and music from and for our community.

Xispas is soliciting work for upcoming issues in the form of articles, poetry, fiction, photography, artwork, graphics and opinion pieces. If you think you can contribute something of this nature, please let us know by querying us at editor@xispas.com or by writing:

Xispas
c/o of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural
PO Box 328
San Fernando, CA 91341