Maria Delores Navarro—referred to by friends and family simply as “Lola”—came to Long Beach from Guadalajara in 1972 with nothing but fifty bucks and the dream of opening a restaurant. Little did she know that her dream, which became tangible with the opening of Lola’s Mexican Cuisine on Retro Row, would be celebrating its sixth year running today.

For Lola, food was life: it connected communities, families, friends, lovers, and strangers. After having two children—Luis and Erica—food became even more important since it sustained her family while she cleaned homes.

By 2007, her children were grown but her dream still remained—and she decided to act upon it, opening up Lola’s Mexican Cuisine on 4th Street in the heart of Retro Row.

It was then that I first met Lola, a few weeks after they had opened. My curiosity was not just piqued by a sit-down Mexican joint hitting the heart of my own ‘hood, but a sign out front that made my heart burst with gastronomical joy: she was serving birria, one of my personal favorite traditional Mexican dishes. I was slightly skeptical, however, upon learning she turned the dish into something I initially felt made the dish either too uppity or awesomely uppity: rather than the traditional goat, she used pork and veal.

“You’ll never go back to goat,” Lola then told me. “This is the way birria should always be made.”

Having learned to never argue with a Mexican mother, I ordered the birria—and to this day, it remains my one of favorites, on par with my Boyle Heights staple Birrieria Jalisco.

The response to Lola’s was immediately positive, becoming famous for what we at the Post, among others, call their “green crack” salsa (just try to stop eating it once you’ve started—you can’t.) and their variety of Mexican dishes. Though success had been granted early to Lola’s—Lola and her son Luis were there daily—her battle with colon cancer unfortunately took her from her friends and family in September of 2010.

Even beyond Lola’s physical presence—“Her legacy always lives on in Long Beach and her restaurant,” said Luis—Lola’s has become a cultural staple in more than just the way it offers food: it is home to the city’s first parklet (the inspiration for those at Number Nine and Berlin) as well as owner and chef Luis becoming a philanthropic and cultural influence, serving on multiple boards and hosting Frida Kahlo’s nephew via Skype for a class on cooking from Kahlo’s own cookbook.

If you stop by Lola’s today, make sure to offer your congratulations to Luis, Lola, and the entire Lola’s family for their six years (and counting) of making Long Beach a little bit tastier and definitely more colorful.

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