TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: The Pinata District of Los Angeles, California

Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Pinata District of Los Angeles, California - Ole!

First of all, to those who don't know what a pinata is, it's a decorated container usually made of papier mache, which is filled with candy and small toys, and then broken at a celebration. In Los Angeles, pinatas are popular in children's parties. Children line up to have a turn at whacking the pinata with a stick; the kids are blindfolded and the pinata is usually pulled up and down with a rope so it's more difficult to hit it.

This Easter, instead of an egg hunt, we decided to have pinatas, one for the children and another for the grownups. We went to Amazing Pinatas in the Pinata District of Los Angeles --- yes, dear Readers, there is a Pinata District in downtown Los Angeles, just as there are Flower, Clothing, and Jewelry Districts in LA.

Amazing Pinatas, 1204 E. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90021, has .... well... amazing pinatas! It's the orange building on the left side of the picture above. The place has pinatas, candies, and party stuff, and all priced reasonably. The Mariachi guy, and Mexican woman pinatas that we bought cost $18 each. Amazing!

Here are pictures of our search for the pinatas, finding them, and getting them into the backseat of the car. Tomorrow, I'll share pictures of the pinatas at our Easter party.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.