On the second floor of a Pasadena strip mall, evacuees were recently massed, regularly enjoying some of the best fish tacos in Los Angeles as the Eaton Fires still burned. Right before they’d cross the street to their emergency hotel rooms, call their insurance companies back, or return to clean the ashes out of their family homes.
Playa del Carmen is a small mariscos sanctuary located less than a mile down Lake Street from the Pasadena Job Center, where immigrant day laborers and volunteers were doing the work of a failed state, organizing to clear fallen trees and electric cables for weeks straight after fires exploded across the region.
Mario Velásquez, the restaurant’s owner, chef, server, and cashier, feels the collective effects of government inaction in the wake of the wildfires. He says neither the county nor the city has moved to provide adequate relief for business owners like himself amid the local state of emergency.
And an emergency it is, as Mario is suddenly facing eviction over rent debt stretching back to the pandemic that he’s been unable to cover, threatening this beloved spot and his livelihood.