Sublime

Guerrero turned them into a living; a daughter, Ana Natalia, branched out with her mother’s approval and opened a chain of Anitas restaurants across Los Angeles, taking with her the family’s taquitos recipes and opening Las Anitas on Olvera Street, not far from Cielito Lindo. Competitors copied those taquitos, along with Mexican restaurants across

Harry Chandler, owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Times, the mighty daily whose incessant drumbeat for the region influenced the city it covered in a way few newspapers have before or since. Chandler’s use of his paper to promote projects around the city—many in which his family and friends had a financial interest—had already turned Los Angel

Commodified Hawaiian culture—the “luau,” the “hula girl,” and “aloha”—became part of the American vernacular and everyday life.

Cielito Lindo, a tiny stand in downtown Los Angeles named after a classic ranchera song meaning “Beautiful Little Heaven.” From here come taquitos filled with shredded beef, grabbed fresh from that roiling pan, then anointed in a creamy salsa, more pureed avocado than chile. The cooks hand them to waiting customers in a container better suited for

That experience with mobile food had long-lasting repercussions for the region. The idea of a movable feast prefigured the drive-throughs that dominated the 1950s. And though Olvera Street developed and pushed out unsanctioned street vending from the area to make way for sit-down eateries such as La Golondrina Cafe, where Chandler and the city’s po