An interview with Cafe Cafe owner, Memo Ramirez

by Ken Leighton, San Diego Reader
January 4th,2000


If there is a battle of the coffeehouses, Ramirez said it all started in 1993 when he and his wife launched the first coffeehouse/music venue in Ensenada.

"Ensenada was in a slump. The building my grandfather built was empty, so I said let's do something here." From the beginning, Ramirez said, an art movement was the driving force behind Cafe Cafe. "We wanted to be surrealists... It started in Europe after dadism. The Beatniks were inspired by surrealism."

Ramirez and his wife Lorena Muro, opened Cafe Cafe as the only place in Ensenada with an appreciation for edgy, underground art. "We had poetry, avant-garde movies, punk rock. We even had 17 musicians from the cruise boat play in here once."

Cafe Cafe has outgrown its 36' by 16' street-level space. In January it moves to an upstairs loft almost twice as big, overlooking the corner of Gastelum Street and First Avenue. Instead of occasional live shows, Ramirez said Cafe Cafe will have live music every Friday and Saturday night, starting in January.

"Eugene Mingus, Charles Mingus's son, played here once. Last Sunday Manu Chao [singer/songwriter with Mano Negra] did a surprise acoustic show... People from Sublime hang out here. They played ay my cafe once. They were called Del Noah and the Mt. Arafat Sphinx."

Ensenada might best be known for its fish tacos, Hussong's cantina, and curio shops that sell ceramic pigs, but Ramirez says Ensenada actually has a thriving underground arts community.

"Art-wise, Ensenada is considered the Athens of Mexico. Especially to people from Mexico City. It's the 'Atzlan' [promised land]... [Author] Irving Wallace lived here. A lot of artists from America and Europe live here, but they don't want anyone to know it."

He says Ensenada is now large enough and hip enough to support an expanded Cafe Cafe with live music on weekends. The upstairs loft at Cafe Cafe opens December 30th with 9 Wind, an experimental San Diego "Arabic/percussion/world music" group. On December 31st the Brazilian inspired Supersonic Samba School, also from San Diego, appears.

Being different from the rest of Ensenada is a good thing, he says. "Papas and Beer is corny. They have shitty dance music... Now is the time to be alternative. Not alternative rock, just alternative. I think we fill a vacuum."

He said he will charge admission. "But not very much."

Cafe Cafe's phone number is 011-52-646-178-3271.
Ken Leighton, San Diego Weekly Reader