Why is a stuffed burro facing eviction from Olvera Street?
Good morning. It’s Monday, May 20. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
- After more than half a century of service, Jorge the burro is facing eviction.
- Biden told Morehouse graduates he hears their voices of protest over the war in Gaza.
- Celebrate graduation or move-out day at the best restaurants near L.A.’s college campuses.
- And here’s today’s e-newspaper
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Meet Jorge, Olvera Street’s stuffed donkey facing eviction
At first glance, Jorge, the stuffed burro of Olvera Street, may seem like a replaceable prop among the trinkets and knickknacks that fill the storied downtown Los Angeles plaza. But how he got there, and his uncertain future, feels like an all-too-familiar L.A. story.
For 52 years, Jorge has never turned down a photo opportunity. For a price, you can don a sombrero and serape, hop on Jorge’s back and come away with a photo.
Cynics might say he occupies a kitschy tourist trap or represents a Mexican cliche. Others will call him a fond memory from a staple L.A. experience.
After more than half a century of service and supplying mementos to tourists, transplants and locals alike, Jorge is facing eviction. The reason? Richard Hernandez, the son of owner Trancito Hernandez, is not on the lease despite efforts by his mother beginning in 2019 to add him, he told local news outlets.
The burro and cart are fixtures in the El Pueblo de Los Angeles, whose board of commissioners supervises the historical monument .
Richard has been running the business since the late 1990s, the family says, but Trancito died in April, and confusion surrounds the contract. On May 1, only a few weeks after his mother died, Richard received a notice that he and Jorge had to vacate by May 16. The order to vacate has been put on hold until Richard makes his case before El Pueblo’s board Thursday.
Family members, friends and fans have rallied support for Jorge and Richard on social media and started an online petition. And now, the L.A. City Council is considering a motion to help Richard extend the lease for the spot known as La Carreta.
All this for a stuffed donkey? To understand Jorge’s significance, you have to go back to the late 1960s and meet the dancing zoot suiter who trained canaries to dance with him.
The life, death and stuffed resurrection of Jorge
Jorge sprung from the mind of Richard’s eccentric patriarch, and the donkey’s path to notoriety was highlighted by visits from L.A. mayors and an appearance in the 1987 film “La Bamba.”
In 2005, Times staff writer Veronica Torrejon wrote a feature on Jorge and the Hernandez family.
Jesus Hernandez worked as a photographer for Spanish-language newspapers and sold souvenirs at the plaza in the late 1960s. He also had an act.
Dressed in a zoot suit, Jesus would perform a dance routine with a unique group of backup dancers, a flock of trained canaries pecking at pieces of paper.
It wasn’t long before he came up with an idea that looked a lot like the prototypical donkey carts that drew tourists in Tijuana.
At first, Jesus tested the waters with a real donkey. Despite the initial success, the donkey, named Cirila, eventually had to exit Olvera Street at the behest of animal activists and health officials.
By 1972, a Mexico City taxidermist was stuffing a dead donkey and sending it to Jesus; little is known about Jorge’s life before he met the taxidermist. (It was eventually refurbished with fake fur.)
Jorge’s arrival came with its own difficulties. Border officials told Jesus that drug-sniffing dogs had alerted them to the stuffed donkey. Richard Hernandez, Jesus’ son, told Torrejon that his dad thought agents were posing as tourists at the plaza to try to see if his business had any connection to the drug trade.
“For six months, the forlorn donkey lingered with customs,” Torrejon reported. “Eventually, the Hernandez business was cleared and the donkey freed.”
After his holdup at the border, Jorge joined the Hernandez family and slowly became a mainstay on one of L.A.’s oldest streets.
“Hollywood has its sign. Paris, its tower. Downtown Los Angeles has its burro,” Torrejon wrote.
The next generation
Nicole Macias is the granddaughter of Jesus and Trancito. She grew up working at her family’s shops on Olvera Street (the Hernandez family also runs Hernandez Imports at Olvera Street).
After her grandmother’s death, Nicole said her uncle Richard was blindsided by the landlord’s eviction notice.
“We haven’t had a proper time to mourn,” Macias told me.
According to Macias, her grandmother’s goal was to get her son Richard added to the burro cart lease and her son Frank on the lease for Hernandez Imports. She’d made efforts to do so since 2019, Macias said, making the three-hour drive from her home in Hanford (with help from family members) to downtown L.A.
Frank was successfully added to the Hernandez Imports lease and has not faced any threat of eviction.
El Pueblo did not respond to a Times request for comment.
Along with the online petition, Macias has rallied support through Instagram as well with a TikTok video about her family that has garnered more than 51,000 views. She’s hoping supporters will come out and support her uncle on Thursday as he makes his plea to extend the lease in front of El Pueblo’s Board of Commissioners.
“When you’re [involved], you don’t see the impact [Jorge] has,” Macias said. “But now I see how much it means to the community.”
Today’s top stories
War in Gaza
- Biden told Morehouse graduates he hears their voices of protest over the war in Gaza.
- An Israeli airstrike killed 27 people, mostly women and children, in central Gaza.
- UC Santa Cruz academic workers to strike over handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
California politics
- Here’s how Kevin McCarthy is influencing this congressional race — without being on the ballot.
- Newsom left the Vatican with the pope’s praise for refusing to impose the death penalty.
- The California Democratic Party endorsed ballot measures on same-sex marriage, taxes and rent control.
- Trump’s resilience gives California GOP dreams of payback in a state that has long been blue.
In the courts
- Sean “Diddy” Combs apologized for an attack on his former girlfriend that was revealed in a 2016 video.
- The rapper was seen on video chasing, kicking and dragging then-girlfriend Cassie at an L.A. hotel.
- Despite apology, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces peril after video shows him attacking Cassie Ventura.
Basketball
- Bronny James is ready to be himself, but the NBA still sees LeBron James Jr.
- Lakers and JJ Redick are a match made in Looney Tunes.
- The Caitlin Clark marketing boom is celebrated but also is drawing questions of race and equity.
Cannes Film Festival
- At a Cannes Film Festival of big swings and face-plants, real life takes a back seat.
- Francis Ford Coppola’s Roman candle “Megalopolis” is juicy and weird, writes reviewer Joshua Rothkopf.
- The “Fury Road” prequel “Furiosa” forgets what makes the “Mad Max” movies great, Rothkopf writes.
More big stories
- Unconfirmed sighting of mountain lion in Griffith Park evokes memories and majesty of L.A.’s favorite big cat, P-22.
- A helicopter carrying Iran’s hard-line president apparently crashed in a foggy, mountainous region of the country.
- Noncitizen voting, already illegal in federal elections, has become a centerpiece of 2024 GOP messaging.
- An LAPD officer was injured when she was ejected from a patrol car after it was stolen.
- Shohei Ohtani gets winning hit in Dodgers’ walk-off victory.
- Surging auto insurance rates are squeezing drivers and fueling inflation.
- America’s first Black astronaut candidate finally went to space 60 years later on a Jeff Bezos rocket.
- CNN is mourning the death of political commentator Alice Stewart.
- What happened to Silicon Beach? Why L.A.’s tech sector hasn’t lived up to the hype.
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Commentary and opinions
- Mark Z. Barabak: Don’t cancel those summer plans yet. Who knows if the presidential debates will come off.
- Jackie Calmes: Whatever Big Oil wants, Big Oil gets. As long as it bankrolls Trump.
- Robin Abcarian: Israel’s Gaza war is horrific, but that doesn’t mean Hamas is innocent of sexual violence.
- Times Editorial Board: California blew it on bail reform. Now Illinois is showing it works.
Today’s great reads
California’s first Black land trust is fighting climate change and making the outdoors more inclusive. The 40 Acres Conservation League is on a mission to establish an open space where Black Californians and other people of color can feel at home in nature.
Other great reads
- The Academy Museum took heat for ignoring Hollywood’s Jewish history. A new exhibition aims to fix that.
- A UCLA doctor is on a quest to free modern medicine from a Nazi-tainted anatomy book.
- This is the magical California state park that doesn’t allow visitors.
- Is print dead? Not at this indie bookstore publishing L.A.’s untold stories.
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
For your downtime
Going out
- 🎓 Celebrate graduation or move-out day at the best restaurants near L.A.’s college campuses.
- 🌮 10 favorite ways to eat through the wondrous Mercado González.
- 🍺 20 of the best happy hour deals in Los Angeles.
Staying in
- 💨 L.A. is one of the best places on the planet to grow weed outdoors. Here’s how.
- 🧑🍳 Here’s a recipe for chipotle-braised chicken with tomatillo bean salad.
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And finally ... a great photo
Show us your favorite place in California! We’re running low on submissions. Send us photos that scream California and we may feature them in an edition of Essential California.
Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Gina Ferazzi. Ferazzi snapped this shot as Shohei Ohtani slid safely into home to score the go-ahead run on a Will Smith single Friday night against the Reds.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Amy Hubbard, deputy editor, Fast Break
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