Casa del Mexicano

A program from the 1981-82 Senorita Mexicano de Los Angeles contest displays Marielena Serrano on the cover. Her daughter, Marielena Bravo, 22, is competing in this year’s Miss Jalisco Pageant.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Miss Jalisco Pageant contestants enjoy a light moment during a rehearsal.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Casa del Mexicano was a center of Los Angeles Latino culture in the 1940s and ‘50s.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Gustavo Sånchez, who is known as Gushsan, paints a mural inside the dome of Casa del Mexicano. The mural is part of an effort to revive the civic and cultural center, which had fallen on hard times at the turn of the century.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

A reproduction of the mural that is being painted by Gustavo Sånchez inside the dome of Casa del Mexicano.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Jesus Avina from Santa Barbara peers at the progress of the dome’s mural.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Martha and Ruben Soriano, center top and bottom, the co-directors of Casa del Mexicano, visit with members.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)