Last week, Eugenia Nicole Macias walked down Placita Olvera on her way to her family's photo stand, a walk she’d taken an untold number of times in her life. Under the colorful papel picado that adorns El Pueblo, she pointed and said, “We used to run around here.”
In the 1960s, her grandfather and grandmother, Jesus "Don Chuy” and Maria Trancito “Tancho” Hernandez, established La Carreta, the home of the famed stuffed donkey known as "Jorge."
This location holds many memories for her and others in her family. La Placita was her playground as a kid. It’s a place engraved in her family's DNA. She even said her parents met here.
Growing up, she remembers running around each stand with her cousins while her family attended to customers waiting to snap a photo with Jorge. People from all walks of life have stopped to immortalize their visit to Olvera Street, the birthplace of Los Angeles, by posing with the famed stuffed donkey.
But now the fate of the family-owned business and its traditions are in jeopardy. According to Richard Hernandez, the family member who operates El Burro, the news of their eviction came during a time of great grief.