Eating History in Boyle Heights The churro Ladies of Lorena and Siskiyou

My project

My homeland is Boyle Heights. I have lived here all my life and I’m very familiar with the area and community. An important part of any community is the street vendors. They spend hours every day walking around the streets of Boyle Heights selling flowers, churros, elotes, and much more. In this project, I focused on the Churro Ladies on Siskiyou and Lorena St, who have been selling churros for almost 33 years. The Churro Ladies consist of Hilda Salinas and her daughter Maria. I chose these street vendors because they have a powerful story and are a big part of the community. They have faced many issues with the law before and even after street vending was legalized. My mom remembers protesting against law enforcement taking away street vendors’ carts alongside the Churro Ladies.My photos and interviews show the struggles street vendors face and how communities still flourish around them.

Gather Around for A Midnight Snack

People gather around a favorite spot in Boyle Heights. The Churro Ladies on Lorena and Siskiyou bring together different types of people from throughout Boyle Heights. From new residents of Boyle Heights to residents with a sweet tooth who grew up visiting them. All the customers always enjoy the churros, the company, and the conversation. In this photo, the community seems to thrive around the Churro ladies showing how important street vendors are to building and maintaining communities.

I took this photo when my mom and I were going to get churros. My mom struck up a conversation with Hilda Salinas, the lady in the photo, while waiting for the churros. They started talking about how my grandparents were doing and then moved on to talking about the rest of my family. Street vendors, like Hilda, that can strike up a conversation with customers are an important part of any community and always make them seem more like home.

In this photo Maria, Hilda Salinas' daughter, is coating the Churros in a cinnamon and sugar mixture and putting them away in a brown paper bag.

In the first photo, Hilda and Maria are taking out the Churros from the frying oil and moving them to a draining spoon. In the second photo, the Churros are being coated with a cinnamon and sugar mixture and then put in brown paper bags to give to customers.

In this picture, Hilda is using the wheel to turn the dough out of the machine and into the frying oil.

Not just churros

During the day a fruit cart takes the churro cart’s place on the street, selling fresh fruit, Bionicos, and Fresas con Cream. The photo to the right is of the cart they use during the day when selling fresh fruit.

In this photo, the vendors are transitioning from selling fruit to selling churros. They are putting away the materials used for the fruit cart like the coolers and loading them onto the truck. They are also setting up the churro cart and starting to make the fresh churros.

About Me

My name is Uzuri Ray. I am a Mexican-American 14-year-old. I was born in Los Angeles and have lived in Boyle Heights all my life. I am in 9th grade at Girls Academic Leadership Academy in Hancock Park. I like photography because I love having the opportunity to capture special moments. I love how pictures can tell stories and I always try to take photos that have some kind of connection to me. My mother was the one who originally got me into photography as it had been a passion of hers. I always found photography interesting but I never had a chance to fully experiment with a camera until I joined the Las Fotos Project.

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