La Luz del Día, one of several multi-generational businesses on Olvera Street, has been serving Michoacan-inspired tacos and other traditional Mexican dishes since 1959. However, due to a steep decline in customers, the restaurant fears how much longer it can hold on.
For generations of Angelenos, this stretch of Downtown has been sold as the “birthplace of Los Angeles,” a place where the city’s Mexican roots are packaged into papel picado, taquitos, and childhood nostalgia for sale.
But for the families who have kept Olvera Street alive for decades, this place has never been a tourist attraction.
And lately, they say, it feels more forgotten than celebrated.
“Ever since COVID, things drastically changed. Foot traffic diminished, tourism diminished, and ever since then, it hasn't gotten back to that million, two million visitors a year,” says Gregory Berber, the third-generation owner of La Luz del Día.