The Cheech

As Cheech Marin marks his 80th birthday, we visit "The Cheech" — the Center for Chicano Art and Culture housed in a former Riverside public library. Best known as half of the counterculture comedy duo Cheech and Chong, Marin has spent more than 40 years quietly building one of the world's most significant collections of Chicano art, donating over 700 works to the museum that now bears his name.

Marin traces his passion back to age 9, when a cousin dared him to learn about art and sent him to the library every Saturday. Decades later, that same love fills a 66,420-square-foot space (a number Cheech took as a "sign") with stained glass, portraits, and neighborhood scenes that tell Chicano stories — including Frank Romero's "The Arrest of the Paleteros," a work whose themes of force and absurdity feel as urgent today as when it was painted 30 years ago. From the Chicano Moratorium to modern-day Los Angeles, the collection preserves a community's history while drawing visitors from around the world.