Resilient Community Revives Compton Bakery After Street Takeover

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Frankie attended the University of Michigan and has a lot of family that lives in Mexico. He enjoys a good coffee and loves traveling the world.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Jan. 2, a raucous “street takeover” by vehicles and onlookers outside of a Compton, California, bakery devolved from racing stunts like doughnut-spinning into looting. One car slammed into the security grate of Ruben’s Bakery and Mexican Food, Inc., breaking through the entrance. A mob ransacked the place, stealing goods worth more than $70,000.

The bakery and meat store, founded 48 years ago by Ruben Ramirez Sr. as a taco stand, is a fixture in this community. The business survived the 1992 LA riots and the COVID-19 pandemic. Would an illegal street takeover – a disruptive and sometimes fatal phenomenon – do it in?

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Rioting, looting, and protests that turn violent often create challenges for a community. This city responded to one such test in a swift and positive way.

Family, friends, and employees pitched in to clean up and repair “a shambles,” as Ruben Ramirez Jr. describes it. The local council member’s office donated paint. 

Against all expectations, the bakery reopened three days later as proof of the power of community, and a testament to recovery after tragedy. 

Now regulars and strangers were lining up at the counter. Rosa Aldaz, emerging from the bakery with bread and champurrado, a chocolate drink, has a message for looters. “Stop and think,” she urges. “Would you want that for your family?”

Ruben Ramirez Jr. hoped 2024 would start with a bang for his struggling, family-owned bakery in Compton, just south of Los Angeles. But he wasn’t thinking of a destructive bang like this – or the unexpected generosity it would spark.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Jan. 2, a raucous “street takeover” by vehicles and onlookers at the intersection outside of the bakery devolved from racing stunts like doughnut-spinning into looting. A Kia Soul reversed forcefully into the security grate of Ruben’s Bakery and Mexican Food, Inc., breaching the entrance. A mob of about 100 people then trashed the place, and made off with cash, equipment, and food – an estimated loss of more than $70,000.

Three Kings Day, a Christian celebration, was coming up on Saturday. It’s a big business opportunity for a Mexican bakery, and the Ramirez family was looking forward to a boost from orders of roscas, » … Read More