By Debbi Snook

Plain Dealer Reporter

Maria de la Luz Galindo, the 4-foot, 9-inch powerhouse behind Luchita's, one of Cleveland's best-known Mexican restaurants, died Friday at the age of 97. She worked regularly in the business up to a decade ago, said her son Alex, continuing to develop an audience for her food, including the signature, chocolate-tinged mole sauce she served in a renovated deco-style bar on Cleveland's West 117th Street.

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'Luchita' Galindo worked until she was 87, claiming ganas, the Spanish word for "oomph."

Photo by Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer

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Courtesy of the Galindo Family

Luchita, at left, would grow up to have enough experiences to fill many lives. She was born in the United States in the 1930s, the daughter of a Cleveland railroad worker and his wife. Her mother took her and her siblings back to the family's Leon, Mexico homestead. She left school after fourth grade.

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Courtesy of the Galindo Family

After she married a shoemaker, moved to Mexico City and had 11 children, her husband died. Galindo moved back to the Cleveland area where she still had relatives. She took cleaning jobs, sometimes two at a time, to support the family. Shown top row, from left, sons Jose and Rey, grandchildren Gabriela and Dani, and son, Alex. Bottom row, daughters Esther and Maria with Luchita in the middle.

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Courtesy of the Galindo Family

She was always there for breakfast, and weekend meals, said Alex. The children learned to take leadership roles. "She always led by example," he said. "And she kept us very close. She could control you with one look, never had to raise her voice. You never wanted to let her down.

"We always felt her presence even when she wasn't there. If you did something, somehow she found out about it."

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James A. Ross, The Plain Dealer

Luchita's talent for cooking and generosity was appreciated by family and friends. When she turned 62 in 1981, she felt she was too young to retire. She and her son, Jorge, opened Luchita's in what was then a rough-and-tumble neighborhood. "When I opened," she said in a 2000 interview with the Benjamin Rose Institute, "two biker brothers said to me, 'Mama Luchita, if anybody gives you a hard time, you tell us about it.' But I've never had a problem."

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David I. Andersen, The Plain Dealer

Many of her children worked alongside her, with Rey, the youngest, taking the lead. He traveled to Mexico twice a year with his mother, collecting techniques from local chefs and using them to contemporize Luchita's cuisine. The foundation of the food, she once said in an interview, was still the freshness of homemade ingredients, from broth to tortilla chips.

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Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer

To Alex, mole was the center of the menu.

"I loved it and the way she made it," he said. "I can eat it with just rice and tortillas."

He now works as a representative of Sysco Foods, specializing in Hispanic ingredients. Rey has become a stockbroker. Eddie, Jorge's son, now runs the original restaurant.

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Courtesy of the Galindo Family

"It's okay to be afraid," she said in the Benjamin Rose interview. "(But) do what you love, and do it honestly. The legacy will spread to your children and grandchildren."