09/15/04

LC040915

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Fast food has a new flavor in Southern California, but it's one
Central Americans have known about for decades.

Jose Cofino>> People would literally come on the plane with up
to a hundred pieces of chicken to bring back to the United
States sometimes to give to their relatives, sometimes to sell
the product.

Val>> And then, the ultimate slideshow, the kitsch and culture
of an era when everyone wanted to be a Southern Californian.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Americans can hardly drive a block without passing a
McDonalds or a KFC or any one of a dozen fast food restaurants.
But what about foreigners, visitors who are hankering for a
taste of home with no place to go? But now a Central American
company is out to change that. Toni Guinyard tells us that
Pollo Campero is turning the tables on American franchises.

>> "Hi. Will you be eating in or taking out today?"

Toni Guinyard>> If you were born and raised in the United
States, you've probably never heard of the Pollo Campero fast
food chain of chicken restaurants, but chances are you soon
will.

Jose Cofino>> This is a brand that was born in Guatemala
thirty-three years ago. While it's new to the United States in
the last couple of years, the roots are long and deep in Central
America.

Toni Guinyard>> Those roots are growing, spreading into the
United States, capitalizing on the influx of immigrants to
Southern California. Pollo Campero is leading the charge in
Latin American fast food chains branching out into the United
States.

Jose Cofino>> I think it's a trend that's going to continue, by
the way, because as we continue to have more global economy and
as that immigrant population wants to have a taste of home
rather than just come to the United States and eat the same old
hamburger or the same old hot dog, I think you're going to see
much more of that.

Toni Guinyard>> Jose Cofino is banking on it.

Jose Cofino>> It needs a little more pop.

Toni Guinyard>> Cofino is President and Chief Operating Officer
of the Adir Restaurant Corporation. In 2001, it was established
to serve as master franchiser for Pollo Campero in the western
United States. The chain is quickly gaining a foothold in the
competitive United States fast food market. Its strategy is to
set up shop in neighborhoods where there are concentrations of
Central Americans who are already familiar with the brand and
are quick to embrace a taste from home.

Jose Cofino>> I believe you have to fish where the fish are.
So we're following predominantly where Latin Americans are, but
I will also tell you that they come and seek us out.

Freddy Osorio>> Yeah, I've been eating this chicken since 1980.

Toni Guinyard>> You remember exactly when you had your first?

Freddy Osorio>> Yeah, when I was ten years old, I've been
eating Pollo Campero.

Toni Guinyard>> Freddy Osorio is from El Salvador.

Freddy Osorio>> It made me remember, you know, when I was ten
years old, so I go back and I say, wow, this is the same chicken
that I was eating when I was ten years old. You know what I'm
saying? (Laughter)

Jose Cofino>> We knew that Central Americans would love it and
we knew that because every plane leaving Guatemala City prior to
Pollo Campero opening in the United States was full of chicken.
People would literally come on the plane with up to a hundred
pieces of chicken to bring back to the United States sometimes
to give to their relatives, sometimes to sell the product. So
we knew there was a market here, but we really didn't truly
understand how big a market it would be.

Toni Guinyard>> In 2002, the chain opened its first United
States restaurant in Los Angeles's Pico Union district. Sales
topped one million dollars in the first seven weeks. Three more
restaurants were opened in other Los Angeles area neighborhoods,
the locations chosen because of the proximity to a popular
department store.

Sonia Carstensen>> The four core stores were built adjacent to
the La Curacao Department Stores. You know, the people that
were coming into La Curacao, it's like, oh, my gosh, there's
Pollo Campero. I mean, I know who they are. I'm going to walk
through Pollo Campero first and then go into the department
store or vice versa. So we were getting all those customers and
it worked, it worked.

Joel Kotkin>> Increasingly, you're going to see more and more
of these companies coming into the areas where their nationals
have settled in large numbers.

Toni Guinyard>> Joel Kotkin, Fellow with the New America
Foundation Public Policy Institute.

Joel Kotkin>> We're really seeing the movement from traditional
ethnic models where one ethnic group was in one area and
services were developed for them to areas that are mixed ethnic
groups in which there's almost like kind of a selection of all
sorts of different kinds of services, kind of almost like an
ethnic smorgasbord, to the point that you really start seeing,
for instance, people who are not Hispanic going to an Hispanic
chain without thinking twice about it.

Toni Guinyard>> It's already happening.

Steve Densen>> This is the first time I've even seen it.

Toni Guinyard>> Can you even say the name of this place?

Steve Densen>> Oh, it's something chicken (laughter). What is
it? I don't know (laughter).

Toni Guinyard>> The Pollo Campero restaurant on West Slauson
Avenue is the first of the chain's restaurants to open in the
United States in a community in which the majority of residents
are not Central American.

>> "Hi. How are you today?"

>> "All right. There's two kinds of chicken?"

Jose Cofino>> This store has actually taught us that we can
leapfrog a little bit and go to an area that is not necessarily
predominantly Latino, but in fact it is, as this one is, fifty-
fifty Latino and African-American, and be very successful at it.

Barbara McDuffie>> We have tried everywhere. We have very few
rotisseries, so they give you, like I said, a combination of
rotisserie and chicken. You get the mashed potatoes, you get
the French Fries. The only thing I think they need is
vegetables.

Sonia Carstensen>> I think our consumers and our demographics
are ready to embrace diversity in terms of their food. I mean,
we know that salsa has taken over catsup in terms of the number
one condiment.

Toni Guinyard>> Pollo Campero has sidestepped a traditional
marketing approach. Little if any attention has been directed
at non-Latin American customers.

Jose Cofino>> And we're not even talking to them. We're not
advertising. It's just "you build it and they will come".

Bob Rusiecki>> I like to diversify my meals anyway, so I don't
mind trying something different and new.

Toni Guinyard>> The Adir Restaurant Corporation is trying
something new as well. It's opened one restaurant in a shopping
mall.

Jose Cofino>> Putting us right next to the other competitors,
one right next to the other, really gave us a measure of how
well are we doing? It's a little bit of "bring it on, we'll
take you on and see how well we do."

Toni Guinyard>> You need look no farther than the Food Court at
the Glendale Galleria to figure out the competition is already
here. The selection of restaurants is a clear indication of the
changing tastes of Southern California.

Jose Cofino>> It gave us the variety of ethnic mix that we
wanted at a much lower risk than building a freestanding
restaurant with a drive-thru in the kind of more traditional
building such as the one we're sitting in now. So the risk was
a little bit lower and, frankly, I'm never one to shy away from
competition.

Joel Kotkin>> One of the things interesting about the ethnic
concept is that, at the same time that you've got Anglos eating
Guatemalan chicken, you've got Guatemalan kids demanding that
the parents take them to McDonalds. That kind of food is not
only national, but it's international. You go any place in the
world now and you'll see McDonalds. I'll never forget I was in
Japan once and somebody said, "You know, my father told me that
they have McDonalds in America."

Toni Guinyard>> And now you go to several United States cities,
including Los Angeles, and you'll see a number of foreign
imports dishing up a fast food meal to a diverse clientele.

Bob Rusiecki>> But, you know, what difference does it make if
I'm white or black or green or yellow. If it's good food, it's
good food.

Freddy Osorio>> Yeah, I see a lot of people coming. I mean,
black, white. I mean, it's the whole family now enjoying the
chicken.

Jose Cofino>> Entrepreneurs from overseas are seeing that
opportunity here in the United States.

Toni Guinyard>> You welcome the competition?

Jose Cofino>> Bring it on, absolutely. Why not?

Val>> Pollo Campero has opened up restaurants in New York,
Texas and the Washington, D.C. area. The company says it
expects to double its number of United States franchises by the
end of the year.

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Val>> They are called botanicas, small shops usually in Latino
neighborhoods that offer the sick and the ailing home remedies
and herbal medicines and, although their storefronts are open to
the public, inside these botanicas there is often an air of
mystery. In this report that originally aired on Religion and
Ethics News Weekly, Saul Gonzalez takes us inside a botanica to
discover they are part commerce, part medicine and part
spirituality.

Saul Gonzalez>> Strolling musicians singing songs of love,
sidewalk food vendors and murals in a rainbow of colors.
They're all common sights in Los Angeles's immigrant Latino
neighborhoods. So is an unusual kind of store called a
botanica. On some streets, there seems to be one on every
block.

Although a typical botanica can appear humble on the outside,
come within and one finds a rich array of spiritual and
religious merchandise: candles and incense, potions and powders,
icons and statues. Taken together, the products represent a
kaleidoscope of faiths and folkloric practices.

Ysamur Flores>> You can call them supermarkets of the divine.
Anything that has to do with the spiritual world, you will find
in a botanica.

Saul Gonzalez>> Ysamur Flores is an expert on Caribbean and
Latino folklore who lectures about botanicas at UCLA, among
other universities. He admires the stores' freewheeling
spiritual eclecticism.

Ysamur Flores>> You can find icons from almost any religious
tradition in the world. You have Catholicism. You have
Judaism. You have Buddhism. You have any "ism" that you can
think of because the idea is that the botanica is really a
polyglot. It speaks all religious languages, so any religious
or spiritual language can be found in a botanica.

Saul Gonzalez>> The stores first emerged in the Caribbean,
where they originally sold traditional herbal remedies and items
used in the practice of Santeria, a faith that mixes together
indigenous West African religious beliefs and Christian customs.
In this country, says Flores, botanicas still reflect a uniquely
Caribbean approach to faith, one that blurs the borders between
different religions while encouraging spiritual self-expression.

Ysamur Flores>> In the Caribbean, there is no conflict of being
many things at once. Actually, if you ask anyone in the
Caribbean what is your religion, most likely they will tell you,
"I am Catholic", and then they will add after a short pause --
"in my own way."

Saul Gonzalez>> In Los Angeles, botanicas have shown their
adaptability by expanding their selection of merchandise to
appeal to the city's large Mexican and Central American
immigrant communities. One of the largest botanicas in Southern
California is Indio Products. With its vast selection of
merchandise, it has the feel of a spiritual and supernatural
Wal-Mart. Here, you can buy everything from lotions to ward off
evil spirits to powders to keep a spouse from straying. The
hottest-selling items, however, are candles. When lit, each is
supposed to have a unique purpose. Shopper Sonia Williams
believes the candles she's buying will protect her loved ones.

Sonia Williams>> This is a Saint Ramon and I use him for my own
benefit, for protecting my children, for protecting me from
gossip and for protecting me from an evil eye. Somebody might
wish me bad thoughts or unhappiness. He keeps all this away
from my door. I believe in him very much.

Saul Gonzalez>> For many immigrants here in Los Angeles and
other American cities, botanicas are far more than just
spiritual curio stores. They are safe havens, places where
newcomers can go to sustain their beliefs, traditions and
customs in a strange new land.

This icon of a conservatively dressed gentleman which is sold in
botanicas across Los Angeles is an example of immigrant beliefs
brought to this country. He is San Simon, also known as
Maximon, a Catholic-Mayan folk saint revered by Guatemalans as a
champion of the poor and dispossessed. This Los Angeles
botanica has a whole temple devoted to San Simon. As in
Guatemala, people who come here leave offerings of candles, food
and hard liquor. In a back room, Carlos Figueroa, like many
other botanica owners, offers visitors spiritual consultations.
He says he tries to solve practical problems for his largely
poor and immigrant clientele.

Carlos Figueroa>> Let's say you are the manager of a company,
someone who wants to see immigration papers, but you the worker
don't have them. You come here and we'll do something so you
can get papers. People come here for their work and for their
health and we'll make a spell or ask San Simon so they get what
they want.

Saul Gonzalez>> The owners of botanicas have been criticized as
modern-day snake oil salesmen, taking advantage of peoples'
superstitions. Others are uncomfortable with the stores'
smorgasbord approach to religion. Their defenders, however,
argue that botanicas play a vital role in the spiritual life of
communities, helping people sustain deeply felt, if unorthodox,
forms of faith. Flores calls this the theology of the street.

Ysamur Flores>> And that is what the theology of the street
means. It is just that we feel that what people do at home with
God, most of the time is not what they do at church with God.
It is a completely different relationship. It is more private
and more empowering.

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Val>> We all remember groaning when Aunt Millie and Uncle
Harold brought out the slide show of their summer vacation. But
no one groans when Charles Phoenix brings out his slide show.
Phoenix is famous for his retro slide shows of 1950's American
culture and many of the slides and photos he found at thrift
shops and yard sales. Now Phoenix has brought some of his best
slides and photos together in a book. It's called "Southern
Californialand: Mid-Century Culture in Kodachrome". Vicki Curry
talks with Charles Phoenix who was raised in Ontario in the
1950's, but is in love with everything vintage.

Vicki Curry>> So, Charles, you have an interesting way of
telling the history of Southern California. What is it?

Charles Phoenix>> Well, I have been going to yard sales and
flea markets and estate sales for the past dozen years
collecting other peoples' old slides. I go through all of these
old slide collections that are kind of abandoned, orphaned slide
collections. I pick out the most extraordinary images and I do
slide shows and now I have this new book, "Southern
Californialand". I've just packed it full of the most
extraordinary slides, amateur-taken, 35mm Kodachrome slide
photography. I've packed it full of the most incredible images
that I've found of Southern California in the 1940's, 1950's and
1960's.

Vicki Curry>> Why slides?

Charles Phoenix>> Well, one day I was in a thrift store and I
said to myself that I shouldn't be thrift shopping anymore. I
was thirty years old at the time. I found a little blue shoebox
and it said, "Trip Across the United States, 1957". I
absolutely went crazy for what I found in the little shoebox.
It was somebody else's vacation in Kodachrome slides. I held a
few up to the light and I knew immediately that I was hooked.
Southern California is such an amazing place. Everything is so
colorful and theatrical and Disneyland and Chinatown and Olvera
Street and Hollywood. You know, suburbia, shopping centers. I
mean, it's all a visual merchandising extravaganza.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> What is it about the slides in particular that
tell you something about that time?

Charles Phoenix>> Well, the quality of the image is so crystal
clear. I mean, compared to a snapshot or a black and white
photo. I mean, this is crystal clear, rich color. When you
print those slides in a book, I mean, I blew them up big in this
book. I really wanted people to be able to look into the
pictures. So it's the quality. It's Southern California. It's
the next best thing to actually being able to travel back in
time.

Vicki Curry>> And you wrote in your introduction that
Kodachrome came of age just as Southern California was coming of
age.

Charles Phoenix>> Yeah. I mean, basically, Kodachrome slide
film was introduced in about 1936 and then, after World War II,
they really started marketing it to the masses, the moms and
pops. You know, not all moms and pops. Generally, you know,
upper middle class households would have a slide camera and take
slides and they went out and documented. This is mom's and
pop's documentation of Southern California really. Not my mom
and pop, but everyone's mom and pop.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> So we're here in Chinatown. What is it about
Chinatown that you love?

Charles Phoenix>> I love everything about Chinatown. The
history of Chinatown, this is an early themed environment, 1938,
and it's Disneyland before Disneyland. It is totally
historical. It's kind of now a diamond in the rough, if you
will. Chinatown was heavily photographed, you know, during the
heyday of slide photography. It was Olvera Street as well. I
have images of both in the book and I'm very proud of them. I
chose my absolute best images. We cover a lot of subjects.

This book, you travel uptown, downtown, north side of town,
south side of town. You know, you get a little bit of it all.
There is suburbia, there is car culture, there are theme parks.
Pacific Ocean Park is a lost theme park which was between Venice
and Santa Monica on kind of like on a pier. It started in 1958.
Anyway, it had a slow, painful death. There are all kinds of
things in this book. Watts Towers, which is probably my very,
very favorite place in all of Los Angeles. I mean, it goes on
and on and on.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> There are things in the book that don't
necessarily exist anymore and really are of their time. What
are some of those examples?

Charles Phoenix>> Well, you mentioned the Children's Pet
Parade. I guess, you know, little schools would have little
festivals or whatever. In the case of the Pet Parade which is
in San Pedro, it's interesting because the kids are literally
parading their pets. They've taken their little wagon or
whatever and they've made a little jail out of balsawood or
whatever and put their cat in there and they go down the street.
You know, it's incredible.

Also in San Pedro, the Ice Cream Pony Cart. It's a pony-pulled
ice cream cart. It's like an ice cream truck, like the ice
cream man, only it's horse-drawn. This is 1947. I couldn't
believe it.

Vicki Curry>> Well, you also spend a lot of time in the book on
the car culture of Southern California.

Charles Phoenix>> I'm really into cars. I love cars. Always
have, always will. The car culture here is, of course, very,
very important. I have a whole page called "Vehicle Pride"
which has people posing next to their 1956 Mercury, their 1953
Cadillac, their 1958 Pontiac Bonneville with the custom paint
job. Then we go to the Culver City Racetrack for the jalopy
races. We go to Lions Drag Strip in Los Angeles in the book.
These are all really rare, extraordinary images that took me a
long time to find.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> Part of the way that you tell your stories,
though, is not through these places and these landmarks, but
through the people of the time. You've got slides of just
unknown, everyday people. Why is that?

Charles Phoenix>> Well, I wanted to include real people in the
book too because, I mean, it's one thing to look at pictures of
places, but I think we enjoy learning about history more when
it's personalized and there are people stories. I wanted to
show people and these are the people that would go to these
places and here are the people at the places. So I wanted to
personalize it by showing the real people of the time, and these
are the people that I found pictures of.

Vicki Curry>> And what do you think those pictures tell us?

Charles Phoenix>> Well, I think we see ourselves in them. I
think that we see our relatives in them sometimes. Like in
these slide shows that I do, people say that looks like my
grandma or my grandpa had that car. I mean, we relate to this
stuff.

Vicki Curry>> Well, beyond the people, what do these slides of
this time period tell us about Southern California history?

Charles Phoenix>> Well, I'll tell you, I mean, talking about
the medium of slide photography, I mean, what they actually give
us is a crystal clear view. Not some hazy snapshot, not some
blurry, fuzzy newspaper printed image. It's the quality, the
crystal clear quality and the color that you can see. You can
actually see the detail. I mean, it's the best documentation of
the period that there really is, still photography wise. There
was nothing better.

Vicki Curry>> And did you learn anything about our history or
about our town from this?

Charles Phoenix>> Oh, I learned tons of stuff. I mean, I'm
able to see things that aren't here anymore. I mean, there are
so many more pictures that I wish this book could have been
three inches thick. I could do more of these books with more
Southern Californialand because there are so many interesting
images, more places, more people. It's really kind of endless.

Val>> Charles Phoenix is also a tour guide. One of his popular
urban adventures is called the "Retro School Bus Field Trip".
And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life
and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.