Entering Cafe Jumping Bean Coffee House and Gallery is like walking into a Diego Rivera mural. The brilliantly painted cafe located in the heart of Pilsen brings together an equally colorful mix of artists, workers, families, cops, and students, all there to enjoy the specialties of the house: coffee, conversation, and art. And that’s just what owner Eleazar Delgado intended.
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When he told his family about his plan, his brother Guillermo, a visual artist who specializes in painting and printmaking, piped up with the perfect location–a turn-of-the-century photo studio on 18th Street, close to the Little Village neighborhood where they grew up. Recalls Guillermo, “I was working with a group of artists on a collaborative printmaking project in that area, and we realized there was nowhere to go to stretch our legs and get away from the smell of solvents.” As it happens, “the building was also very famous for being a barber shop in the late 70s,” says Eleazar. “It was always a gathering place.”
At first, neighborhood residents were less than welcoming. They were apprehensive of the new business, especially the name, which they felt played to ethnic stereotypes. Many stopped by to complain. “But when they saw the owner was Mexican and not some corporation,” Eleazar explains, “they said, ‘Well, the name is OK.’”
But Jumping Bean doesn’t disregard the solemn nature of the event. An important part of its celebration is an ofrenda, a ceremonial altar created to pay homage to a member of the community who recently passed away. Last year it was dedicated to Rene Villanueva, a musician from Mexico who succumbed to cancer. He’d often visited the cafe when he was in town performing.
