An Immigrant's American Dream come true

Beneath the palate of one Olympic Boulevard restaurant lies something else—a moving story of one immigrant’s love for his home.

A trip to a Pico-Union Mexican restaurant typically brings forth a few standard images to mind: delicious, authentic Mexican food with a layer of authenticity you can’t recreate at more mainstream stops like El Torito Grill. Beneath the palate of one Olympic Boulevard restaurant lies something else—a moving story of one immigrant’s love for his home.

The restaurant is Guelaguetza, and the owners are Fernando Lopez and his wife, Maria de Jesus Monterrubio both natives of Oaxaca. Lopez opened the downtown favorite over two decades ago with his wife, Maria Monterrubio. In the years since, it’s become a staple of Mexican cuisine in Los Angeles, where it’s most popular for its authentic Oaxacan ingredients.

Guelaguetza was the very first Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles. Oaxacan cuisine makes heavy use of corn, beans, chile peppers, along with spicy hot chocolate. Today, many restaurants have followed Guelaguetza’s example of serving traditional Oaxacan food and spreading Oaxacan culture to the community, but few are as well-known as the original.

Meanwhile, Guelaguetza soldiers on, serving up Oaxacan specials like tlayuda, a tortilla spread over with refried beans, assorted vegetables and asiento, a type of unrefined pork lard. Restaurant-goers frequently wash down the heaviness of the authentic Mexican food with mezcal, a distilled alcoholic drink derived from agave.

But the true star of Guelaguetza is the mole, particularly the Mole Negro. Traditionally served over chicken, this slow-cooked sauce offers a depth of flavor that keeps hitting new levels with every bite. It is no wonder that in 2015, the restaurant won a James Beard Foundation Award.

The food isn’t the only selling point. Five days a week, Guelaguetza puts on live music and arranges dance concerts that pay homage to Oaxacan culture.

The workers at Guelaguetza certainly appreciate the cultural tradition in place. “I love the environment and I love working here,” says Edgar Nahera. “It’s been two years but I still love being here.”

For Lopez, establishing a tradition of native Oaxacan culture in the United States was destined to be a menu item. Lopez’s life in the U.S. began over two decades ago, when a tourist visa trip to L.A. allowed him to stay and begin selling his native food to locals, according to a 2013 story broadcast on SCPR.

His food hit it off with the locals, and Lopez eventually opened six restaurants, according to SCPR. The crown jewel of the chain was Guelaguetza, where the famous mole continues to be a hit today. Guelaguetza even offers the recipe through its online retail store, which is located at the restaurant's website, ilovemole.com.


The part of the story the restaurant doesn’t tell has perhaps the most Oaxaqueño pride of all. For all of Lopez’s success in finding the American Dream, his heart remained in his homeland. In 2013, he packed up and went back home to Oaxaca, according to SCPR. In a twist of fate, he gave the Oaxacans a taste of foreign cuisine in reverse, opening a SoCal-style burger joint in his native homeland, the story reported.

Back in L.A, the restaurant continues to thrive. In February’s James Beard Foundation Awards, the restaurant picked up one of the five prizes, according to Eater Los Angeles. Billed the “Oscars of food,” the James Beard awards have been handed out to the nation’s best eateries for the past 25 years, though Guelaguetza became the first traditional Mexican restaurant in history to pick up a prize, according to LA Magazine.

Lopez’s son, also named Fernando, currently runs the restaurant, while his father captains the new SoCal burger ship in Oaxaca, which is named Pink Burger. Monterrubio, who was instrumental in helping her husband establish the restaurant in 1994, currently splits her time between L.A. and Oaxaca, according to SCPR. She still misses living permanently in Los Angeles. "My husband is kind of tired, so he wanted to go back to our home," Monterrubio said. "I miss a lot. We lived here for 23 years. It’s not easy you know?"

Meanwhile, Guelaguetza soldiers on. The restaurant’s live music arrangements adds a different taste of Oaxacan flavor to the menu. Throughout the week, visitors of the restaurant are treated to a spread of traditional Mexican music, from Latin Jazz to Latin Rock, and from Cumbias to Marimba.

Restaurant-goers enjoy the live feel to the restaurant. “I live pretty far away, so I always drive one hour with my wife." said John Lopez, a restaurant goer.

Meanwhile, the restaurant also plays hosts to events. In March, Guelaguetza served as a host to El Mezcalero, an Oaxacan mural the restaurant’s website described as “boycotted” by the Oaxacan people. The mural “depicts the image of a mezcalero,” the website reads. A mezcalero distills alcohol to craft the classic mezcal, a favorite beverage at Guelaguetza.

For all its art, music and life, Guelaguetza is living proof that a restaurant can transcend selling food and instead present a wholesome piece of Oaxacan culture. And of course, there’s the delicious mole.

The restaurant is just a 10 minute drive from USC.