Itinaerary / Hispanic Heritage

Friday Evening

Going on 70 years old, El Cholo, 1121 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 734-2773, is L.A.’s original border-style Mexican restaurant. Enjoy frosty margaritas with Cuervo 1800 tequila and green corn tamales, available for the summer season beginning tonight.

Saturday

Morning

Mission San Gabriel, Mission Drive between Santa Anita Street and Junipero Drive, San Gabriel, (818) 457-3035, founded in 1771, was the fourth to be established in California. It was intended to be an outpost of the Spanish Empire and a bulwark against Russian expansion south from Alaska. Today, a visit to the parish and museum provides a glimpse of life under the Spanish flag and later under Mexican rule. It was the Mission San Gabriel from which 11 Mexican families departed in 1781 to found the pueblo of Los Angeles 10 miles away on what is now Olvera Street. Mission open daily 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.; adults $4, children 6-12 $1.

Saturday

Evening

Dine at El Emperdor Maya, 1823 S. San Gabriel Blvd., San Gabriel, (818) 288-7265, which serves Yucatecan food reminiscent more of Latin American or Caribbean cooking than combo-plate Mexican. The cochinita pibil (chili-marinated pork baked in banana leaves) and panuchos yucatecos (tortillas topped with black bean paste, pickled red onion, pickled cabbage and shredded turkey) are musts. This may be the closest thing to what Mexicans ate before there was a Mexico.

Sunday Morning

Get up early for fresh baked pastries at one of L.A.’s panaderias, Celaya, 2704 S. Vermont Ave., (213) 731-8429, open daily 6 a.m.-8 p.m. This family-owned Mexican bakery has rows and rows of goodies. Grab your own tray and a pair of tongs and go crazy; they’re just 20 cents to 40 cents each. The scone-like chellienas with clusters of hard sugar on top are delicious, as is the pane de huevo (egg bread) and the cuernos (horn-shaped pastries).

Visit another of L.A.’s historic missions, the San Fernando Mission, 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd., Mission Hills, (818) 361-0186, the 17th mission built by the Franciscan Order in 1797. The mission’s decline began in the mid-19th century, soon after Mexico declared independence from Spain in 1822. A succession of Mexican governors hostile to the Franciscan Order led to the mission’s closure by Gov. Pio Pico in 1855. Open daily 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; admission $4 adults, $3 seniors and children 7-15. Sunday’s services: 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon.

Learn about rancho life at the Leonis Adobe, 23537 Calabasas Road, Calabasas, (818) 222-6511, Wednesday-Sunday, 1-4 p.m., adults $2, children 50 cents. In the mid-18th century, when Miguel Leonis, a young Basque immigrant, married a Native American widow, Ispiritu Chijulla, he acquired the large El Escorpian rancho and the Leonis Adobe, which he remodeled as a Monterey-style house. The house and grounds have been restored to depict rancho life in the 1880s.

Sunday

Afternoon

Decorate your own hacienda with handcrafted furniture, lighting and decorative items from Arte de Mexico, a 75,000-square-foot complex of warehouses at 5356 Riverton Ave., North Hollywood, (818) 769-5090.