December 5, 2023

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Professional waiter experts

Local Mexican-American History Group Honors Longtime Historian, Local Family Restaurant – Pasadena Now

Reminiscences were on the menu Saturday afternoon as the Pasadena Mexican American Record Affiliation (PMAHA) hosted an honoree luncheon for almost 100 good friends, households and supporters—after much more than a yr of pandemic isolation—at Mijares Mexican Cafe.

The function honored longtime PHAMA historian Rachel Heredia, who passed away previously this year, as nicely as the Mijares family members, which celebrated their restaurant’s 100th calendar year of operation very last calendar year in the middle of the pandemic.

The cafe, an initial supporter of the PHAMA business, returned the honor by internet hosting the event, as nicely as donating $2,000 to the group.

Mayor Victor Gordo stopped by the occasion, saluting not only the honorees but the associates as effectively, saying that the accomplishment of Mexican-People in america in Pasadena only served pave his own route to getting to be mayor of the metropolis in November of 2020. Gordo has talked regularly about growing up in a Pasadena garage,  as the son of a cafe waiter/prepare dinner father and seamstress mother.

“I like to say that Pasadena is the ‘center of the universe,’ Gordo advised the audience, “and it’s tricky-operating people like you who make it that way.”

Artist and longtime PMAHA member Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin made a particular “domestic altar” for Heredia’s memory. She stated that the altar was  comparable to the kinds of altars that would be uncovered in neighborhood properties, as opposed to bigger,  extra commercial Dia De Los Muertes displays now exhibiting up in a huge vary of destinations from retail outlets to large office outlets.

“Rachel was 1 of the major leaders here in our corporation,” mentioned Sandi Mejia, party co-organizer. “She genuinely worked to make issues come about.”

Heredia worked to produce the Canto Robledo venture, discussed Mejia, which resulted in the 2010 set up of a bronze plaque at Villa Park Recreation middle to honor the previous bantamweight winner boxer, who turned to coaching following an injuries in the ring remaining him blinded.

Robledo’s son, Joe, who emceed the event, is author of a reserve detailing Pasadena’s exceptional boxing historical past, Blood on the Canvas: The Daily life & Legacy of Boxing Icon, Canto “TNT” Robledo.

R-lene Mijares de Lang and Alice Mijares, granddaughters of Jesucita Mijares, ended up also honored for the family’s a lot more than 100 several years of services to the Pasadena group.

Mejia recounted how Jesucita, the matriarch of the Mijares spouse and children, took in boarders at her Pasadena property to enable meet fees immediately after shifting to the U.S. in the early 1900s. She also fed those people boarders, which led to the opening of the family’s 1st tortilla store and Mexicatessen, which of study course, inevitably led to the opening of just one of Pasadena’s oldest and most venerable eateries.

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