Mercedes Márquez, left, is departing as L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ top housing and homelessness official, to be replaced by Lourdes Castro Ramírez. Mayor Karen Bass’ homelessness czar, Mercedes Márquez, will leave her high-profile post next month, with state housing official Lourdes Castro Ramírez set to succeed her, the mayor’s office announced Monday. Castro Ramírez will start her tenure as the …
Filmmaker Rodrigo Garcia joined the L.A. Times Book Club July 29 to share the stories behind “A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes,” a memoir about his father, Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, and mother, Mercedes Barcha. The slim volume is sprinkled with family photographs and passages from his father, a novelist and journalist whose books include the literary classic, “One …
