Loyola Marymount University welcomed Natalia Molina, a MacArthur Fellow, renowned scholar and author, for a conversation with Rubén Martínez, Professor of English and Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing in the LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts. Molina’s work over the past 20 years has centered on narratives of race, belonging, and citizenship in the United States, forming the foundation of her book, while her grandmother Doña Natalia’s extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit served as its inspiration.
The Los Angeles Times described “A Place at the Nayarit” as “an essential Los Angeles book.” The work chronicles the lives of immigrant workers, including Molina’s grandmother, Doña Natalia, who became placemakers by nurturing and feeding their communities in restaurants that served as urban anchors. Doña Natalia immigrated to Los Angeles in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution and, as a single immigrant woman, opened the Nayarit, transforming it into a space that cared for and sustained its community while also drawing the attention of downtown businessmen, LA Times food critics, and even film stars such as Marlon Brando. The restaurant remained a community fixture until it closed in 1976. “A Place at the Nayarit” went on to become a finalist for a James Beard Award and received 14 awards and honorable mentions from various organizations.
The crowd of faculty, students, and staff gathered in Ahmanson Auditorium on Oct. 30, 2025, and were treated to an earnest discussion of the central influence of place – both Molina and Martínez grew up in Los Angeles – and the communities that grow around food. Although she never met her grandmother and the restaurant has been closed for 50 years, Molina pieced together narratives through oral histories, archives, and interviews, emphasizing the urgency of preserving stories that are often lost because families don’t pass them down, and especially because communities and neighborhoods change.
Martínez, an Emmy-award-winning journalist who was the first Latino on staff at the L.A. Weekly, noted, “it’s a true pleasure on a personal level since our families have a bit of an intersection in that we both have families that had restaurants in mid-20th-century Los Angeles.” Martínez’s family restaurant was the Cha Cha Lounge in Silver Lake, while the Nayarit, now the Echo music venue, was in nearby Echo Park.
“I always understood the uniqueness of Echo Park — a racially and ethnically mixed neighborhood that was home to people on the margins, including organizers, LGBTQ+ community members, and nonprofit workers,” said Molina. “Our crooked streets weren’t cookie-cutter, and they reflected the individuality of the people who lived there.”
Ariana, an animation major, said, “I think I learned more about the importance of having a space where you feel welcome and a place where disenfranchised people can come together and have strength and community when others might not welcome them.”
The conversation was the signature fall event of a new initiative in BCLA called Community Hour. Held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when no BCLA classes are scheduled between 11:50 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., Community Hour provides an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to come together and connect, both socially and intellectually. Other sponsors of the talk included History, StudyLA, Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, Journalism, and Phi Beta Kappa.
“I think it’s interesting the way her work interfaces with what we’re trying to do as a college, and building community and getting people to talk across identities,” said Adam Fingerhut, associate dean of BCLA and professor of psychological science. “And to really learn together. And so, I think that we were able to do that today, and I think that both professors really facilitated a space for people to think and to be in community with each other.”
An event about food and community wouldn’t be complete without a delicious lunch, which was provided by Chef Brisa Lopez of Casa, an incredible chef and entrepreneur whose business was affected by the Altadena fires.
