For the last three months, the family behind La Carreta, the home of the now-famous El Burro at Placita Olvera, has been fighting the potential removal of their decades-long business.
According to City News Service, the Board of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument Authority Commissioners voted to evict La Carreta this Thursday despite attempts from the family, community, and even the city council to save it.
Rightfully so, the vote news caught Richard Hernandez, owner of La Carreta, and his family off guard.
"I wasn't prepared for this. The last three months have been just hell,'' Hernandez told CNS.
The family first heard about the potential removal three months ago, after the matriarch of their family, Maria Trancito Hernandez, his mother, passed away.
“My mother unexpectedly died, and I was served with a notice to vacate five days after her death,” Hernandez told L.A. TACO back in May.
The eviction is due to a contract issue. No one else in the family was listed on the paperwork, so when Hernandez’s mother passed, an expiration date was set on the contract.
“The pueblo claims there’s a clerical error with our business contract; however, my family owns another business here, and we drafted paperwork for both back in 2019 to change ownership and add our other family members,” explained Eugenia Nicole Macias at a previous gathering to support her families business.
The general manager of El Pueblo, Arturo Chavez, has not made many public comments about the ongoing issue, but he did say this to NBC4 following the vote.
"The department has exhausted every legal option and still faces the issues raised in the 2019 letter for the GM, including non-payment of rent over the year. The department has no other choice but to recommend that the Commission move forward with the action to retain the property and address the potential risk to the city of having someone operating on city property without legal permission, insurance, or other requirements."
In an interview with CNS, Hernandez said he is not the only one who has had backed-up or delayed rent, citing that things have not been the same since COVID-19.
Still, the family insists that not everything was about rent and that management failed them by not correctly filing or following up with them after they submitted paperwork that included Hernandez as the owner should his mother pass.
Hernandez told CNS that he believed the manager had no intention of working anything out with them.
"They don't seem to grasp that idea. They think they're safe, but a lot of businesses have stepped down and closed down because of the same actions that management wants to take,'' Hernandez explained.
La Carreta and El Burro have been in the heart of Los Angeles since the late 1960s when Jesus "Don Chuy" and his wife, Maria Trancito Hernandez, first opened the attraction.
Hollywood stars, politicians, and community members have flocked to El Burro to snap a photo for decades. When many of those folks initially heard about the news, they shared pictures from their visits throughout the years, some dating back to when they had a real donkey.
In May, Council member Kevin de Leon visited Hernandez and submitted a copy of a motion asking the board to reconsider the lease contract.
“It’s been part of the fabric of this neighborhood. To me, it's odd that they want to evict them. I think it's in poor taste,” said De Leon. “Why do we have to go out of our way to make it much more difficult?”
Hernandez and those who treasure El Burro hoped the council member's support a few months ago would save it.
But now, the fate of La Carreta, the beloved stuffed Donkey, and all the decades of memories and culture it holds is up in the air. Hernandez is now considering the next steps.
