Nearly every morning, Graciela Vega wakes up at 2 a.m. in her Sylmar home, eager to greet a new day and her many loyal customers at Panaderia San Fernando, which doubles as a popular location for residents of the tightly-knit community to not only pick up traditional Mexican sweet bread, but also to share their news.
Working early morning baker’s hours is a routine she and her husband Mario Vega have kept for decades, yet Graciela still looks forward to every work day at their small and often bustling bakery at 313 South Maclay Ave.
Shortly after the couple arrives at their panaderia at 3 a.m., the Vegas and their employees begin their daily routine of kneading dough and working the hot ovens to turn out a variety of colorful sweet bread.
Graciela, who is nearly 70, said some days start out a little harder than others due to various aches and pains, but somehow her physical discomforts seem to disappear – or she doesn’t really notice them – once customers start trickling in through the front door when they open for business at 7 a.m.
“Some mornings when we get to the bakery, I tell my husband, ‘My stomach is hurting a little’ or ‘I feel a headache coming on,’ but when the first customer walks in and says, ‘Good morning’ and we start talking, I start to … feel happy and it always makes me feel better,” said Graciela.
Husband Mario, the main baker, ensures the panaderia is always filled with the palatable aromas of freshly baked Mexican bolillos (rolls) and an array of traditional pan dulce (sweet bread) selections – polvorones, mantecadas, fruit-filled empanadas and classic conchas, to name just a few. Near the cash register – adorned with countless photos of family and community members – customers can pick up jars of honey, cirios (candles) commonly used for prayer or Mexican-style cloth dolls.
In the front corner of the shop, kids can busy themselves at coin-operated candy machines, while their parents load up red bakery trays with their favorite pan dulce. For longtime customers, picking up baked goods and hot coffee often goes hand-in-hand with stopping to chat with the spirited and ever-smiling Graciela herself – a.k.a. “la señora de la panaderia” (the bakery lady).
“Hola! Como estas?” (Hello! How are you?) is heard frequently throughout the day as customers interact with Graciela and each other, catching up on the latest neighborhood buzz or their own family updates. They might discuss a recent parish event at St. Ferdinand Catholic Church, which is just across the street; announce happy news, like a family wedding or a grandchild’s graduation; or share the passing of a beloved relative or community member.
Graciela said her customers also know they can count on her for advice or suggestions about almost anything, from recommendations for a good local caterer to a reliable auto mechanic.
“I love being in the bakery and talking with the people,” she said. “I speak with almost everyone who comes in, and my customers are from all over San Fernando and they work in every type of business, so if someone has a health problem, for example, I can ask a nurse who comes in for advice about their symptoms. Or I might put a customer in touch with a mechanic or someone from the gas company or social security office who might help them or answer their questions.”
Graciela and some of her customers have known each other for up to 30 years and consider one another “family.”
“They know me and trust me enough to tell me about so many different things going on in their lives,” she said. “One thing I really love is when people are leaving and they say, ‘Take care of yourself and God bless you.’ I think people say it so much that my life really has been blessed.”
From One Family to the Next
Graciela has felt at home in the panaderia and the surrounding community since shortly after immigrating to San Fernando from Michoacán, Mexico in 1980. She started working at the bakery in 1981, when she was hired by the owners at the time, Lorenzo and Hortencia Ortiz.
The very next month, they made another fortuitous hire – Graciela’s then-future husband Mario. When they first met, they started out as friendly co-workers – nothing more, she pointed out, because at the time “he was going out with a girl who worked at the restaurant right next door.”
“Actually, it’s a funny story,” she added, divulging that after finishing his shift at the bakery, Mario would often sit and talk with Graciela while waiting for the young woman to get off work. “Sometimes we would get so caught up in conversation that the girl would end up going home.”
Soon after, Mario stopped seeing the girl at the restaurant and started waiting only for Graciela.
“One day he invited me to the movies and we started going out – and that was it,” she said. They exchanged wedding vows two years later at Santa Rosa Catholic Church in San Fernando.
The Vegas continued to work side by side in the bakery with the Ortiz family until 1990, when Mario accepted a job working in the bakery department of a Hughes supermarket.
When Lorenzo and Hortencia Ortiz announced their plan to retire and shutter the family-owned bakery in 1992, Graciela asked them to consider selling the business to them.
“I told them, ‘I’ve been working with you for so many years now, I know I can do it,’” she recounted. “I knew it was something I wanted – first of all, I didn’t want them to close the bakery. Secondly, I had to work somewhere, and I didn’t want to start over at a new place.
“It made them so happy … but they warned me, ‘Don’t think you’re going to earn a lot of money owning a panaderia,’” she added. “‘It’s lots and lots of work for not a lot of money,’ they told me. I said ‘As long as we can make enough for food and to pay the rent, then it will be perfect.’”
Graciela officially became la señora de la panaderia on Jan. 1, 1993. She managed the bakery with six employees, working most days from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. The Ortizes helped her a lot during the first couple of years, dropping by the bakery almost every day in the beginning.
“They helped me so much,” Graciela said of Lorenzo and Hortencia Ortiz, who have since passed away. “I am so grateful for the opportunity they gave us to work for ourselves.”
Her husband ended up joining her at the bakery full-time about five years later, and their two daughters – who attended St. Ferdinand Catholic School – helped out in the shop after school.
“The four of us were always together when the girls were growing up,” said Graciela.
Today, Cecilia Vega, Graciela’s younger daughter, works in the bakery with her parents, helping with whatever they need – taking orders, doing invoices and ringing up customers. She enjoys seeing how much the community loves her mom, who is just as genuine as she seems, she said.
“My mom is a people person – everybody loves my mom, and they say, ‘She’s such a good person,’ and that really is my mom,” said Cecilia. “I know people always say, ‘I have the best mom,’ but honestly she really is so wonderful and I don’t know where I would be without her.”
Looking Ahead
These days, Graciela is not only a devoted wife, mother and community member, she is also a doting grandmother. After waking in the pre-dawn hours and working nearly a full day, she leaves the bakery between 9 and 9:30 a.m. to go home and take care of her grandchildren.
While she cherishes their time together, Graciela said she inevitably misses spending time at the panaderia – seeing old customers, meeting new ones and even chit-chatting with quiet ones.
“Sometimes a customer might seem quiet or not really in the mood to talk, but I’ll still say hello and ask how they are. I might mention the weather or say something else that might make them react and say, ‘Oh yes’ and it sparks conversation,” she recalled. “By the time they leave, they often walk out with a smile and say, ‘See you next time.’ That always makes me feel good.”
Looking ahead, Graciela said it pains her when her husband reminds her they will have to retire in a few years. Until then, she’ll keep greeting, laughing with or even counseling her customers.
“A man told me recently, ‘I told you everything I normally tell my therapist, but you don’t charge me anything,’” Graciela recalled with a laugh. “I told him, ‘See? You should come here instead, get your coffee and pan dulce, I’ll listen to you, and then you’ll go home happy.’”