Cochinita pibil trailblazer and the first ever TACO MADNESS champion—back in 2009—Socorro "Mama Yuca's" Herrera has passed away after fighting a "short illness," according to the restaurant's Instagram and Facebook pages. She died on December 23, just two months before becoming a nonagenerian.
"We love you forever Mama Yuca's," wrote her surviving daughters on Yuca's Instagram account.
An outpouring of support from fans of the James Beard Award-winning Yucatecan restaurant in Los Feliz have already started to pour in. "Bless her beautiful heart i am so sorry to hear. She was a pillar of the community and always kind and warm to me even in the early 80’s when i was an unrespectable street rat," commented Flea, one of the founding members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
"Our deepest condolences to Margarita, Dora, and Jaime," Gilberto Cetina Jr. tells L.A. TACO on behalf of his family's restaurants, Holbox and Chichen Itza. "Doña Soco, feliz reencuentro con nuestro amigo inolvidable Jaime "Papa Yuca's" Herrera. (Happy reunion with our unforgettable friend, Jaime "Papa Yuca's" Herrera)."
Mama Yuca was born in Merida, Yucatán and was described as always being "forever smiling" by her restaurant's loyal customers. Her family's tribute to their matriarch highlights Mama Yuca's entrepeunerial spirit that was evident as soon as she moved to Los Angeles.
Initially working for Avon and other home-based jobs, it wasn't until she worked in L.A.'s garment industry where she created her first business, along her late husband, by renting a U-Haul and offering goods at workplaces for the busy working women.
In 1976, she saved enough money to open one of L.A.'s first regional Mexican restaurants inside a former 8 x 10 foot former shoeshine stand in Los Feliz. "As she embraced her dream, mama ignored the naysayers who told her the [space] was too small, too expensive, and too ugly," Yuca's Instagram post reads. "On April 1st, 1976, she opened Yuca's with the simplest business plan: 'I'll make it and they will come.'"
Fast forward to 2005, when against all odds Yuca's remained open and earned a James Beard Award in the coveted "American Classics" category, cementing Mama Yuca's iconic status in the city of tacos. She was also known for making one of L.A.'s most slept-on delicious 'hood burgers in the city that made it to the "Tasty 8" round in this year's Tournament of Cheeseburgers, presented by LAist.
"I was sure people would like the food," Mama Yuca told L.A. TACO in a 2016 interview when asked if she was concerned at all about customers not liking cochinita tacos during her restaurant's transition from serving burgers and fries, to offering one of L.A.'s first cochinita tacos.
She was a resident of Glendale and is survived by her children, Jaime, Margarita, and Dora, all of whom are continuing her legacy and preserving her historic recipes at both Yuca's locations in Los Feliz and Pasadena.
Services for Socorro Herrera are set to take place on Saturday, January 25 at 1 PM at Our Mother of Good Counsel Church located at 2060 N. Vermont Ave. Los Angeles CA 90027.
Yuca's is at 2056 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, and at 1075 S Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena
