Six years in the past, Diana Galicia and Salvador Corona stop their jobs, cashed out their retirement financial savings and opened a espresso store on 18th Street in Pilsen.
The transfer paid off: La Catrina — named after Mexico’s grand dame of loss of life — grew to become a neighborhood staple quickly after opening on International Women’s Day in 2013. Artists, politicians and lecturers from close by Joseph Jungman Elementary have been regulars. Vendors turned the café right into a avenue market nearly each weekend.
“We wanted to create a space for the community to come in and enjoy,” stated Galicia who, like Corona, grew up in Pilsen. “Nothing else mattered.”
Sunday was the couple’s final day on the café. In October, Galiza and Corona are heading again to Mexico, the place each have been born, with plans to open a café there quickly.
Dozens of mates, household, and former staff got here to say goodbye to La Catrina Cafe on Sunday.Carlos Ballesteros/Sun-Times
Going to Mexico with Galiza and Corona will probably be Paola Zamora-Rojas, 25, and their granddaughter, Olivia, 2. Zamora-Rojas was engaged to Galicia and Corona’s solely son, Gabriel Cisneros, earlier than he died of an unintended heroin overdose within the café on Mother’s Day in 2016. He was 22.
Cisneros labored as a barista on the café and was concerned in lots of artwork initiatives throughout the neighborhood.
Zamora-Rojas was three months pregnant with their daughter on the time of his loss of life. Within weeks, she took over Cisneros’ shifts on the café.
“It’s the only thing that made sense,” she stated.
Gabriel Cisneros, son of founders of La Catrina Cafe in Pilsen. Cisneros died of an unintended heroin overdose on the cafe in 2016.Provided
Zamora-Rojas was born in Mexico and grew up in Pilsen after being introduced into the United States at age 2. She has continued to stay right here with out authorized authorization, one thing she had deliberate to handle after the marriage. Cisneros’ premature loss of life, nonetheless, proved exhausting to beat.
“I didn’t have the emotional strength to go through the entire process of getting everything fixed,” she stated.
A 12 months in the past, Zamora-Rojas began to significantly take into account transferring to Mexico along with her daughter. She needs to return to high school and change into a dental hygiene technician however her immigration standing would make most monetary help unavailable.
“I can’t do everything I need to do here because of a lack of papers,” she stated. “I don’t want to work a dead-end job forever.”
Earlier this summer time, she informed Galicia and Corona about her plan to maneuver to Mexico. They instantly jumped on board.
Both have been born in Mexico and have become everlasting U.S. residents within the 1990s. For awhile, they’d toyed with the concept of taking their enterprise throughout the border, so when Zamora-Rojas informed them she was transferring to Mexico, “we already felt like it was the right time to leave,” Galicia stated.
They plan to maneuver to the capital of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, the place Corona is from.
Paola Zamora-Rojas (proper) and her daughter, Olivia Cisneros, exterior La Catrina Cafe in 2017.Provided
La Catrina was on the bottom flooring of an house constructing at 1011 W. 18th St.
The café featured a number of Mexican-inspired menu objects like chorizo breakfast burritos and the “Dirty Abuelita,” made with Mexican sizzling chocolate, a shot of espresso and topped with cinnamon and whipped cream. Spanish pop and rock music typically performed; and its partitions have been lined with items by native artists.
Six months after opening in 2013, Galicia and Corona added a small stage and patio to a storefront on the east finish of the constructing. Dozens of artists, musicians, and neighborhood leaders used the area all through the years, together with Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who kicked off his marketing campaign on the café final summer time.
In March, their landlord elevated the hire….