If the building could speak, its stories would be of galas and ghosts, of rats and lucha libre matches, of decades-long feuds.
The Casa del Mexicano, an 82-year-old cultural center in Boyle Heights, recently reopened its doors for this year's Christmas posadas. A year ago, it had narrowly escaped foreclosure.
It's a long and tangled story, one that few carolers knew as they ascended the iconic stairway, bringing the lime-and-lemon-colored building back to life with guitar strums and candlelight.
"Wow," said Elvira Muro, 53, taking her seat inside. She craned her neck to admire the 50-foot ceilings, the cupola and balcony. "It feels like home, like Mexico."
Families gathered around poinsettia-topped tables to hear fandango and other musical performances. They ate pozole, tamales and pan dulce.
Many had never set foot inside the building. They knew it existed, but they had little idea what went on inside.
The history of Casa del Mexicano is hard to piece together.
The nonprofit was established in 1931 by the Mexican Consulate under the name Comite de Beneficencia Mexicana Inc. The center aimed to support Mexicans during the Great Depression, when many were being forced to return south, blamed for stealing Americans' jobs.
Over the years, it became a place of prestige.
Mexican dignitaries and celebrities visited. They danced in pearls and bow ties to raise money for programs. In the 1960s, former Mexican President Miguel Aleman put the Casa del Mexicano at the top of his list of places to visit in Los Angeles. Educational classes, donation drives and disaster relief fundraisers staged there helped thousands.
But by the 1990s, trouble had set in.
Organizers fought each other for control of the property. There were smear campaigns and feuds involving armed men and chain saws. Responsibility for the building switched hands so often, it became dilapidated. The roof leaked, windows were broken, rats ran wild.
In 2004, a married couple took over. Martha Soriano became president of the organization; her husband, Ruben, was the treasurer. They reported to a board of community members.
Martha Soriano promised to restore Casa del Mexicano's educational and outreach programs. And she did — to some degree.
But there were rumors in the community that the couple were not managing the Casa as a nonprofit. People complained that the Sorianos were making money, lots of it, off the building.
Nearly every weekend, they rented out the cavernous space for quinceañeras, weddings and lucha libre matches. They held a swap meet in the run-down parking lot, charging vendors for each space. They allowed ghost hunters to regularly tour the site, for a fee.
In addition, the couple took out a $175,000 loan against the property, some say illegally. They then fell behind on the payments.
In 2011, a group of community critics alerted the state, and an investigation was launched.
The Sorianos said they were the victims of a bad economy. They took out the loan — with the board's permission, they said — to make repairs on the building. But between what the couple called an unfairly high interest rate and a mix-up in the county that sent property taxes soaring, the Casa was mired even deeper in trouble.
In order to pay a mounting stack of bills, Martha Soriano said, they were forced to regularly hold events.
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