Profiles of prosperity: Leticia Rhi Buckley, CEO of La Plaza de Cultura y Artes

Leticia Rhi Buckley is a Mexican American, first generation Latina working as the CEO of La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. A graduate of Loyola Marymount University, she has dedicated her life to the arts. She has been able to ladder up from her starter duplex in Little Ethiopia to a soft loft in downtown Los Angeles where she currently lives with her family. She has impassioned opinions about privilege and how it intermingles with prosperity and how it dictates the decisions that she makes for herself in her life. What struck me the most was the volume of poignant life experiences in her parent’s home in East Los Angeles where she was born and raised. It’s almost as if she keeps all those fond memories in her pocket as she goes through life. Always ready to smile and share with those that she comes across in both her personal and professional life.

Sergio: Please describe your childhood home?

I was born and raised in East Los Angeles. A small home in a working-class neighborhood. I left my childhood house in my twenties. It is the unincorporated part of East LA, City of Commerce and Montebello. We lived close to my abuelita’s [house] ... two-bedroom, light green stucco, dark green trim. My dad would touch up the trim on an annual basis to make sure it was clean. My parents bought it in the early 70s. My uncle helped them build an addition as my parents had more children. My father was a laborer and my mom was a gardener. They took great care of the flowers and the porch where we would sit. I remember it vividly around Halloween. I would hold the bowl of candy and my sister sat next to me. I learned to drive there. My sister crashed into the garage door. My friends threw me a surprise 13th birthday party there. I had my wedding shower, my parent’s 20th wedding celebration [there.] It was really the foundation of who I am and where I come from. [We had] mostly English-speaking Latino neighbors. My parents came to the U.S.A. in the 50s, my mom worked in the fields and my father worked at Sears in the warehouse, both were raised by single parents. I think they were rooted in the idea of the American dream and wanted to assimilate. My dad was in the Army and when he met my mom in the late 60s, they both agreed that they needed a purchased home to raise a family. They were raised in rentals their whole lives. They wanted stability. Both of my grandmothers lived in this home with us in their old age and passed away in this home. My parents lived very frugally and when they bought their home, it was about $20,000 and when they sold it to move to Pico Rivera, the value of the home compounded to nearly $250,000.

Sergio: When did you begin to fantasize about prosperity and did you tie your vision to an image of a home?

The notions of prosperity were based around my parents. We didn’t have expendable income but as a family of five, we went to Disneyland every year. They saved and had intentionality with their finances. They wanted their daughters to have experiences that they did not have. I remember they saved to take me to experience musical theater at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. They had a strong commitment to giving us access. There was no reason why their daughters did not have access to arts and culture. I remember that when we went to Disneyland, we would take a cooler with us because we would run out of money to buy food and drinks in the park. I wasn’t looking at things outside my family. Prosperity was about having a life that you enjoy. I was raised in that type of household. Family. Music. Laughter. Sure, there was hardship but we always had access. I never thought of myself as “an other” until I went to college. I was always around working class Latinos. Racquet Mountain in Montebello was where the money was. We assumed that all the money was on Racquet Mountain. My neighborhood was different and I felt safe but yes, there were fistfights on the weekend on my streets. I just wasn’t necessarily entrenched at that time in the differences between my neighborhood and Racquet Mountain.

Sergio: Do you have any stories about that era when you were into musical theater?

I remember vividly that I wrote a paper in middle school  about Renoir because of the Duran Duran song called "The Reflex." They referenced it in the song. My mom took me to LACMA, the Getty Center, and museums in Guadalajara. I enjoyed all those experiences. I used to draw with pastels. I danced ballet folklórico. My dresses were all hand-made by abuelita. I played the flute. Renoir was not in my world but art definitely was a part of my world.

Sergio: What does your home look like present-day?

I live in a 12-story building in downtown Los Angeles. It’s a brown, neutral color. A Starbucks on the bottom floor with twinkly lights, a lobby, trees lining the streets, and we live on the 5th floor. It’s a soft loft so it’s just one big space with cut-outs that we converted into a 3 bedroom with temporary walls. My husband and our son live there. My daughter has already left for college. We own our loft. It is the third home that we have owned.

Sergio: Tell me about your first experience with purchasing a home?

I was in my early twenties. A friend, who was older, told me, “You gotta own dirt!" He encouraged me to have a 401K. I was working at Ticketmaster. It stuck with me. When I met my partner, he had a much more privileged background than me. We didn’t have a doubt that we wanted to own a home. We made the decision to purchase a property and for me, I do think that my parents influenced me to own. We bought a duplex so that we could have rental income from a tenant, in Little Ethiopia. We were not able to afford a single family residence at that time.

Sergio: Tell me how you laddered up.

My parents own their home in Pico Rivera and they own it out-right. My dad is codo and he has intentions with his money. He was intentional about paying it off and yes, in theory, I would inherit a third of their real estate. My husband and I decided that we would ladder up when we decided to have children. We bought a trust sale in Sherman Oaks that had been on the market for a year. We saw the possibilities and decided we’d slowly renovate it. It took us five years. We made real estate decisions based on where we were working. When we moved to downtown LA, we were all driving from Sherman Oaks every day. My daughter would cry when we would get on the freeway on-ramp. For the health of our family, we moved to downtown. We have been living here for 14 years. When we sold the house in Sherman Oaks in 2020, we bought a small house in Idyllwild in the mountains. So, now we have the loft in downtown and the second home in Idyllwild.

Sergio: Is there a connection between your former fantasy and your current reality

I live a privileged existence. My children are privileged. I didn’t get on an airplane until I was 10 to go to Guadalajara. My children had passports by the time they were five and they traveled internationally. I work hard to ensure that we support organizations that are a part of the community we want to live in. It’s our responsibility. My job at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes is so important because I believe everyone should have that type of access. I am very passionate about it. LA Plaza has a 12-year history and I look at it like, what do we do now? How do we ensure that what we do is centering the people that we serve? How do we know what they need? We need to talk to them and have constant communication. My whole career has been in white-led institutions focused on western European art forms, we all worked hard to establish them and they reflect the privilege of the communities they serve. I took all of that experience and privilege and I am leveraging it for my community. I believe we can do that. I work hard with that as my personal north star. Now is the time.

Sergio: Do you equate prosperity with privilege?

You can define prosperity by money. But, for me, prosperity is also defined by the richness of our lived experiences.  My prosperity affords me the privilege of access, connections, a strong network. But it isn’t my own. I believe that it needs to be shared, and I work everyday to make sure it is.