{"id":677339,"date":"2026-03-24T02:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T02:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/677339\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T02:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T02:36:13","slug":"jorge-el-burro-the-iconic-olvera-street-stuff-donkey-to-be-evicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/677339\/","title":{"rendered":"Jorge ‘El Burro,’ the iconic Olvera Street stuff donkey, to be evicted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jorge \u201cEl Burro,\u201d the frequently photographed stuffed donkey that has greeted visitors of Olvera Street for decades, won\u2019t be around for much longer.<\/p>\n

On March 13, an L.A. judge ruled that the owner of the donkey\u2019s La Carreta stand, Richard Hernandez, was to be evicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood Bye Los Angeles it\u2019s been great!\u201d reads a sign at the stand. \u201cSince 1968 the Hernandez family has brought you timeless memories. Generations have been photographed here. We lost our case with the City of Los Angeles, we want to stay. But Mayor Bass won\u2019t negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling handed down by the Los Angeles County Superior Court is the culmination of a years-long saga involving the La Carreta owner and the city.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Hernandez was given a 30-day eviction notice<\/a> by the Board of Commissioners for the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument Authority, which manages the historic and commercial resources of Olvera Street.<\/p>\n

To try to resolve any problems the city may have had with the stand, Hernandez said he has attempted to pay for any and all missed payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI offered to pay whatever is owed, penalties, whatever, and they returned my check,\u201d he told KTLA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following an inquiry from The Times, the mayor\u2019s office sent a statement from the city\u2019s El Pueblo Historical Monument Department. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Burro has been an iconic feature for so many Angelenos, which is why the city has been open to working with Mr. Hernandez and his family to honor its history,\u201d the statement read. \u201cBut the lease for that space ended on its own terms with the passing of Maria Hernandez on April 16, 2024, and City contracting requirements necessitate a bidding process. Mr. Hernandez has been informed that the bidding process is open to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria Trancito Hernandez, Richard\u2019s mother and the stand\u2019s legal owner, died in April 2024 without leaving behind proper legal documentation that handed over her business to her children. <\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t from a lack of trying that this became the case.<\/p>\n

The matriarch attempted to add Richard, who had been managing the stand since the 1990s, and her daughter Patricia Hernandez to the lease agreement in 2019. However, Olvera Street\u2019s general manager expressed concern regarding Richard when presented with the request.<\/p>\n

He cited a \u201crecord of nonpayment of rent, inconsistent business insurance, aggressive and threatening behavior and making false accusations against city staff and merchants.\u201d No further documentation was provided to show Hernandez\u2019s alleged behavior. <\/p>\n

Hernandez was placed on a one-year hold to give him an opportunity to improve his behavior. The board eventually found that his aggressiveness continued from 2019 through 2023, but it offered no examples.<\/p>\n

Daniel J. Bramzon, Hernandez\u2019s attorney and the president of the tenant rights nonprofit Basta Inc., told The Times that Hernandez had been in talks with El Pueblo to get La Carreta under his name since at least 2011.<\/p>\n

The lawyer claimed that Hernandez had been approved to get added to the lease agreement three different times by three different general managers of El Pueblo \u2014 once in 2011, then again in 2013 and 2019. Bramzon said Hernandez was never formally added due to clerical mishandlings.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a history of Richard assuming people are doing their jobs at El Pueblo and adding him to the contract,\u201d Bramzon said. \u201cRichard was really a victim of a lazy bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year after the 2024 eviction notice, a court ruled in the Hernandez family\u2019s favor to temporarily protect them from eviction, L.A. Taco reported <\/a>in 2025. <\/p>\n

The victory only briefly tided over the situation as the family immediately faced another legal battle regarding the stand\u2019s eviction that ultimately led to last week\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Jorge sprang from the mind of Richard\u2019s eccentric patriarch, and the donkey\u2019s path to notoriety was highlighted by visits from L.A. mayors and an appearance in the 1987 film \u201cLa Bamba.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Carreta dates to the late 1960s, when Hernandez\u2019s father, Jesus \u201cDon Chuy\u201d Hernandez, originally set up on Olvera Street.<\/p>\n

In those days, Don Chuy employed a live donkey from Pomona named Cirila.<\/p>\n

In the early 1970s, a photo with Cirila cost $2, and the animal drew crowds of visitors. Cirila was also used in Olvera Street\u2019s traditional Christmas posadas.<\/p>\n

Cirila was retired in 1972 and replaced with the stuffed donkey Jorge, who was shipped from Mexico City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorge \u201cEl Burro,\u201d the frequently photographed stuffed donkey that has greeted visitors of Olvera Street for decades, won\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":677340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,285341,2451,285343,161211,285338,285340,3613,262431,190765,2961,285339,85785,224,5337,37150,285337,68115,285342],"class_list":["post-677339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-cirila","tag-city","tag-don-chuy","tag-donkey","tag-el-pueblo","tag-eviction-notice","tag-general-manager","tag-hernandez-family","tag-l-a-taco","tag-la","tag-la-carreta-stand","tag-lease","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-olvera-street","tag-richard-hernandez","tag-stand","tag-threatening-behavior"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116281828642691356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}