Four generations, one legacy of love, labor, and Olvera Street.
The story of Las Anitas begins long before its doors opened — with a young mother named Aurora C. Guerrero from Zacatecas, México.
In the late 1920s, after her husband Ignacio left for work in the United States and never returned, Aurora made a courageous decision. With her five children — Anna (Natalia), Manuel, Belen, Ralph, and Rose — she crossed the border through El Paso, eventually settling in Los Angeles. The family lived in the hillside Mexican community of Palo Verde, later cleared to build Dodger Stadium.
Aurora worked as a field and day laborer to feed her family, often riding the bus to work with her children in tow. But what sustained them most was her gift for cooking. Using recipes from Zacatecas — tortillas pressed by hand, stewed beef (machaca), and simple foods made with care — Aurora began selling taquitos from a wooden box cart along the streets of downtown Los Angeles.
By the late 1920s, she walked daily to Olvera Street, selling her taquitos to merchants, laborers, and tourists. Word spread. In 1934, Aurora established a permanent stand at E-23 Olvera Street — the birthplace of Cielito Lindo, now an LA landmark known for its famous taquitos and creamy avocado sauce.
As the business grew, so did the role of her children. Aurora believed success meant lifting family with you. Throughout the 1940s, she helped her children establish their own restaurants across Los Angeles.
In 1947, her daughter Anna Natalia Guerrero, now a young mother herself, opened Las Anitas just steps away from her mother’s stall — in the basement of the historic Italian Hall on Olvera Street. Where Cielito Lindo offered quick bites, Las Anitas served full plates: enchiladas, chile verde, fajitas, tamales — food meant to feed families, neighbors, and fellow merchants.
It became a place where working people ate, where tourists returned year after year, and where the Guerrero family kept tradition alive — quietly, steadily, without ever abandoning their roots.
Today, nearly 80 years later, Las Anitas is still family-owned and operated by Aurora’s descendants. We still cook from scratch each morning in our Olvera Street kitchen. We still serve recipes that have never been written down, only passed down. And we still believe that a meal — like a legacy — is meant to be shared.
From a wooden taquito cart to a fourth-generation kitchen, this is our family’s story.
