Genius Loci: L.A. as Collage

I've been around the city quite a bit, and I'm always taking pictures to document my travels. Here are my TOP FIVE favorite that my iPHONE captured.

1.] DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

2] THE OSCARS

3] ONE OF MY FAVORITE VIEWS FROM THE TOP: YAMASHIRO RESTAURANT

4] LOS ANGELES LAKERS

5] LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY

photo credits: Michael Flores

Rock & Brews: El Segundo

I WORK for an independent company in El Segundo called Gravitas Ventures, which distributes independent films to Video On Demand websites such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon. Working in El Segundo can be quite a treat. This small town atmosphere provides several mom and pop shops that you can browse through when you walk the streets on a sunny afternoon. I always find myself walking to a new venue for lunch because trying new food has always been a hobby of mine. Recently, the Rock & Brews restaurant, located off bustling Main St. has been under construction for quite sometime.  They expanded the patio, added a barn-like structure to protect everyone from the elements, built in heaters, outdoor bathrooms, and a HUGE new bar.

There are 52 beer taps offering variety and options for any rock enthusiast. The beer board is now a TV monitor that rotates what is currently available. Lining the walls are logos from Rock n' Rolls elite: The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Kiss, and many more. This is more than just a brewery with popular bands plastered on the walls. Gene Simmons, popular front man of the band, Kiss, has taken an investment in this restaurant. While he has many other business ventures, Simmons is excited that this one revolves around family and food. 

Rock & Brews had a quiet opening earlier this week and on Tuesday, April 3, they had their grand opening. Film trucks lined the streets as camera men and video operated ran up and town transferring equipment and props in and out of the restaurant. The grand opening honors the nation's veterans in an event called, "The Wounded Warriors Project." At it, veterans will be wine and dined to the tunes of their favorite rock stars.

Gene Simmons will be making a live guest appearance beginning at 6:00pm and the doors will open to the public at 8:00pm for the start of the Grand Opening. While I was not able to get tickets to this event, Rock & Brews has captivated my eye with their design and their menu and I will definitely be grabbing a bite to eat here very soon. 

Photo Credit: Rock & Brews

Soccoro Cuadillo: 50 Years of Tradition

IT'S MINUTES before 6:00 AM.


The air outside feels like ice against the skin and the morning sky is painted gray with clouds that float lethargically above. Traffic on Echo Park Blvd. off the corner of Sunset is light, though by afternoon this will become a busy intersection. The fluorescent red, yellow, and greens, flicker on the stoplights emitting a bright flash of color in the grey dreary morning. Soccoro Cuadillo doesn’t let the drab morning ruin his cheery mood.  Today is a morning just like any other. You can call a man in his profession by many names, yet the way he performs his craft is much like that of an artist pursuing perfection. Instead of brushes and canvases, the tools Caudillo uses are found in the heated arena of the kitchen. Titanium steel ovens, bags of flour, and a staff of family-friendly Angelenos, have kept Caudillo’s business, Celaya Bakery, operating successfully for nearly 50 years. The clock strikes six and his store is open for business. 

   “It’s the warm smell of fresh baked bread. It reminds me of waking up early in Mexico, going to the kitchen, and finding my mom pulling a fresh batch out of the oven,” Caudillo tells me behind his thick Mexican accent and even scruffier beard. That is what keeps him going every day. Owning a successful business takes dedication, and it’s the dedication of “our family,” he says, that keeps this business owner waking up before dawn every morning.

Panaderias (as they’re commonly known), or “bakeries,” are plentiful in ethnic parts of downtown Los Angeles. Walking a few blocks, an individual may encounter five or six different types of Mexican eateries that all offer similar goods. Caudiallo and his staff's dedication  keeps the doors of Celaya Bakery open. The job calls for early hours in a cramped space, yet this small family business has left customers smiling for almost half a century.  Most innovators try to add twists and turns to the every day object. Caudillo is a man of rituals and customs:  “I’ve been using the same recipe for years,” he says. “Sure, maybe a few things have changed here and there but the idea is the same.” His bread and treats are traditional in every sense of the word, however time and practice has allowed Caudillo’s staff to produce a perfect product. The sugar coating on every piece of pan. Pan, the Spanish word for bread, is Caudillo's specialty.  His pan dulce, (candy bread), is is light and sweet and comes in an array of pastel colors.

Caudillo has brought an art to his food and service that only family can provide. Although Celaya Bakery is big in heart, its location in busy downtown Los Angeles offers only a tiny space inside a popular consumer district. The kitchen is small and Caudillo and his team developed their own body language to maneuver around one another when the days get busy.  Baking to these employees comes as simple as taking a breath; their rhythm makes their job seem simple.

Caudillo was born in Chapala, Mexico, just outside Guadalajara. After marrying his wife and deciding to settle down, the pair packed their bags and headed to the United States to ensure a better future for their would-be family. Starting a business in 1960s Los Angeles is no easy task. In a time where crime and freedom of speech roamed the streets, the city was changing rapidly with the construction of freeways, housing, and a vibrant nightlife. Southern California provided the perfect weather and Los Angeles lined it’s street with opportunity and trades. “I grew up around small towns and villages… the city was always a long drive,” he says, “It was hard to adapt [here] at first… but I learned the ways of the streets.”  Caudillo found a niche in the vast city and stuck to what he knew. “There wasn’t many options for me when I moved here. I had some money saved up and decided to use it for something I’m good at,” he explains. From sunrise to sunset, Caudillo provides a pledge to every customer walking in that they will leave satisfied.

Located only a mile from Dodger Stadium off Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue., Caudillo set up shop in a location that would draw hundreds in every day.  On game days Caudillo opens his doors to a rush of Dodger fans, hurrying to fill his tiny shop. Families come and load up on many of the sweet breads, fresh carnita burritos, chile reyenos, or homemade horchata. Customers are always smiling and pleasant as Caudillo’s atmosphere emits a slice of home. “The city has changed quite a bit. New suit shops come up every few years… one thing that won’t change is people’s hunger,” he laughs. “People like to eat food, good food. I want to make sure every customer leaves smiling.”

Caudillo and his family (along with a few extra helping hands) have run and operated the business for almost half a century,  surviving several of Los Angeles' recessions. While many neighboring businesses have come up and down, Celaya Bakery provides products that are always in demand. More recently, Celaya Bakery stood strong during the neighborhood's gentrification all the while keeping his business worth of a grade "A." While many businesses often relocate because of regional or societal dilemmas, Celaya Bakery has stayed put since it’s inception. “I like to keep things simple. It’s easier that way,” he says.
The changing city of Los Angeles has brought many different customers through the doors of Celaya Bakery. No matter what streets and parkways are under construction, native citizens always find their way to the bakery when the doors open to find a nice slice of home waiting for them.

-- Michael Flores

Photo Credit: Michael Flores

My La, My Home: Celaya Bakery

LOS ANGELES  is an intricate maze of freeways and streets that wind through skyscrapers, businesses, and back alleys, and it is a land where the speech of its people has become laid back while their actions and motivations are fast paced. For me, the flurry that Los Angeles emits is home. Home, for a lot of people, comes with traditions and values that we grow up around. No event comes with more tradition for my family than Christmas. And when Christmas comes, so do the pile of tamales.

            Located off Sunset Blvd and Echo Park Ave., Celaya Bakery is a hole in the wall if you ever saw one. If you aren’t looking for the bakery, you may miss it. Celaya is one of only a cluster of stores and shops squeezed together on a city block. The owners tease the public by proudly displaying their freshly baked bolios (fresh baked Mexican bread) in their giant bay windows, drawing in customers of all kinds at all times of the days. The crisp bread that is taken from the oven and transported to the display case produces a symphony of sounds when an individual rips off a piece and hears the rhythmic crackle released by tiny breadcrumbs. On several other shelves line the sweet pan dulce, sugar coated with every color on the pastel rainbow. Wandering around the floors of Celaya Bakery is like wandering around the aisles of a candy factory. There is a surprise in every corner.

For my family, going to Celaya Bakery is a tradition every Christmas holiday. My mother went to grammar and middle school with the owner’s daughter and my mother tells me that little has changed to the bakery after forty years.  "Not much has changed over the years other than a few re-paintings here and there," Martha Flores, 50, proud mother of this here author, states. "My parents used to own a restaurant and Celaya was our provider [for bread]. It wasn't until seventh grade when I found out I went to school with the owners' daughter." 

Christmas is Celaya’s busiest time of the year and their reputation of flawless tamales precedes them. My mother places her nine dozen-tamale order three weeks in advance: three-dozen pork, three-dozen chickens and chili, and three-dozen cheese. For those arriving to the bakery days before Christmas are turned down because the demand for these delicious treats is through the roof.  Taking a bite into any flavor will send your taste buds into frenzy, dancing wildly over the kick of spices found within the recipe.  The sugary sweetness of candied bread combined with the perfect fluff of their bolios leaves your mouth wanting more. The bread can be nicely washed down with a glass of milk or better yet, their homemade champurrado (Mexican hot chocolate). The goal of the bakers is to leave their customer’s mouth watering and it is a goal they achieve every day.

We then package these tamales into separate gift baskets to give to friends and family, a tradition we’ve done for years. Our family has become affiliated with tamales during the winter and with every delivery to a friend or relative comes the opportunity to reconnect with those we love and haven’t seen.

For my family, bringing these tamales isn’t done for the purpose of delivering a delicious delicacy. For my family, delivering the tamales is like delivering a slice of home and for those familiar with Hispanic traditions; opening up our home is common. During the holidays, we wish to bring the warm feelings of home to those we cherish deeply. "Celaya Bakery has been run and operated by the same family for years and you really feel like you're apart of that atmosphere when you walk in," Martha Flores explains. Home is where the heart is and my heart belongs to Los Angeles. It is small businesses like Celaya Bakery that have occupied the city for half a century and continue to please its customers daily that I am proud to call myself a native.

-- Michael Flores

photo credit: James H., Yelp

Iconic L.A.: Nine Letters, One Dream.

LOS ANGELES is known for it’s vast, eclectic social climates. In one part of town one may indulge themselves in spices and cuisines of far eastern traditions while thirty minutes north west a similar set of residents find themselves enjoying the posh environment of the elegant part of their city of quartz. However, no social habitat is far greater than the infamous realms of the Entertainment Industry, which continues to mesmerize millions of dreamers every year with glittered dreams of fame, fortune, and the lifestyle of the rich and powerful written about in Rolling Stone. Yes, Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world and it is beneath the eyes of Hollywood where individuals, young and old, dare to put their dreams to the test. The Hollywood sign's nine letters serves as an iconic metaphor for ambition, success, and glory. Los Angeles’ unofficial “great wonder of the world” has, for more than eighty years, served as not only a worldwide symbol of a sensational wonderland you can only find on the big screen, but also a constant reminder to work hard so that my reputation will be colorfully associated with the word.


Originally commissioned in 1923 by a Los Angeles Times’ publisher as an ad campaign for suburban housing, the “Hollywoodland” sign billboard was intended to draw in wealthy settlers to the Utopia of a popular, ever-growing city. The sign was said to only last about a year and a half, but after the explosive boom in the Movie and Television Industries, and a bit of surgery to the name in 1949, the “Hollywood” sign became the symbol we all know today. Attending a university which overlooks west Los Angeles, the thirty-five foot sign can be seen from the edges of the university's bluff. Working toward a career in screenwriting, my dream is to be known among the entertainment elite and in high demand for my talents in writing. Seeing this sign inspires me to work diligently, creatively, and vividly.


The sign can be seen as far as Santa Monica and near the boundaries of LAX to the eastern parts of downtown where a mass of freeways intersect each other. Built at the top of one of the largest hills in Los Angeles, just on the other side of Burbank, the large white letters serve not only as a very popular tourist destination, but also as an elusive promise that one day, a person’s name may be linked with the powerful associate of it’s meaning.


Los Angeles changes every year: businesses come up and go down while pop culture painted on the sides of buildings and highways reflect the rhythm of modern times. However, the perilous nine white letters have remained a constant in the city’s history. While Los Angeles endured many economic and archetypal changes, the sign is intended to be seen from afar as an elusive lure into success and achievement in the city. Every state has their own iconic structure to boast about: South Dakota pays tributes to our great presidents with Mount Rushmore, Missouri has their Gateway Arch, and for California, the Golden Gate bridge and the Hollywood sign share the coast both serving as symbols for a new dream. But it is only with the Hollywood sign where your imagination has the space to run wild.




-- Micahel Flores


photo credit: Michael Flores

Behind the Scenes of "The Sign"

THE VERY top of the iconic Hollywood sign. More than just nine letters spelling out a city's name, it is one of the world's most illustrious symbols.

A note: I did this hike two weeks ago. Sadly, you are unable to sit on the letters like they do in the movies.

-- Michael Flores

credit: michael flores