Cruzita’s Deli and Cafe is situated in the heart of Huntington Park. Celina Cruz is often seen working front and center, alongside her mother, Maricruz, who fixes people’s orders. Not only do they serve iced coffees and deli sandwiches, according to Celina, they provide a third space for those who feel unwelcome by the current ICE raids.
“We were very intentional about opening up Cruzita’s in Huntington Park. I’m from Huntington Park, born and raised. My mom is an immigrant from Zacatecas, and she’s lived all over L.A. but ended up settling down in Huntington Park, which is where me and my two brothers mostly grew up,” Cruz said. “I would say Huntington Park is a very resilient community. I feel like people thrive there because they come together, and they help each other out and support each other.”
Walking into the cafe on a random weekday, one can see customers using the available outdoor tables, catching up with friends or family and enjoying their food. Next to the register, they have “Know your rights” red cards and immigrant rights pamphlets. On their windows are posters with “Abolish ICE” in big letters and a Palestinian and Pride flag on the shelves. According to Cruz, the cafe works hard to fight for equal rights and diverse representation by working in collaboration with local businesses.
“Our cafe is a very community-oriented cafe. We take pride in the ingredients that we serve, the quality, and the vendors that we work with, from the local vendors from our coffee roaster to working with farmers market vendors. So we take pride in the food that we serve, but we also take pride in the way that it also serves as a third space for our community,” Cruz said.
Cruzita’s hosts many fundraising events for the community, including arts and crafts activities, bake sales, music, movie nights, food drives, and book clubs. Cruz says she finds joy in the “smallest things” from the people around her cafe.
“I find tremendous joy whenever I see a regular bringing a new friend where they’re excited to share this part of their community,” Cruz said. “That means so much to us; it means more than 10,000 followers on Instagram.”
Cruz says she feels the responsibility to protect Cruzita’s neighborhood from this current wave of ICE raids. She noticed a great shift in what used to be a vibrant neighborhood into a quiet area where residents felt unsafe to leave their homes.
“We felt the impact. People were not coming out. A lot of our regulars weren’t showing up, you know, like luckily we were still getting customers, but you notice the ones that were not showing up…. And we were like, ‘OK, like something’s going on.’ People don’t want to come out and just be a neighbor to you. You could feel it. You could feel the energy driving the neighborhood," Cruz said.
After noticing this decline, she gathered other local small businesses to defend and protect the community. With the help of other businesses and volunteers, Cruzita’s hosted fundraising events to financially support families affected by ICE. The events include free food, music, and activities catered to local clubs, residents and businesses.
Cruzita’s works alongside the Huntington Park Run Club for club meetups and donates approximately 15% of their profits to families impacted by ICE raids. The store also sells custom stickers at the front of the cafe, and all proceeds go to affected families.
Cruz and Huntington Park’s Run Club work together on petitions to advocate for secure streets and infrastructure around Huntington Park for pedestrian and cyclist safety. According to her, she commits to this work to preserve Huntington Park’s thriving community, especially because she understands how difficult it is for immigrant families to feel safe in their own neighborhoods.
“I love to see the many ways that people thrive beyond the challenges that are placed, the socioeconomic challenges, and all the other things that follow. People find a way to thrive. And yeah, I love that about our community,” Cruz said.
According to the founder, Iris Delgado, The Huntington Park Run Club proudly partners with Cruzita’s because they’ve done so much for their community. Delgado was a regular at Cruzita’s until she teamed up with Cruz to host her club’s Saturday morning runs.
“Celina and I have had a pretty strong relationship over the past years, just because I’ve been a very regular customer throughout the years… we keep partnering and keep doing this kind of work together. It has just been really something that I’m really happy to see, and a lot of us that live there are really happy to see,” Delgado said.
During the height of the ICE raids, Delgado and Cruz formed the South East Los Angeles Rapid Response Network. This network is an initiative handled alongside other volunteers in the Los Angeles area, as well as businesses such as Picaresca Barra De Cafe, Sunny Sunny, and Sierra Mexican Cafe .
The SELA Rapid Response Network notifies families about nearby ICE sightings and available community resources, like immigration rights workshops. These workshops teach community members about the difference between valid judicial warrants and administrative warrants processed by ICE.
The SELA Rapid Response Networks also collaborate with Unión del Barrio, an organization that advocates for immigrant rights. UDB provides training for community patrols, outreach, and immigrant rights education. These organizations’ allyship focuses on protecting families from the impacts of the current ICE raids.
“[SELA] did business outreach, know-your-rights presentations for businesses, worked to create protected spaces for workers, and conducted vendor outreach around the Home Depot in Huntington Park, where raids were happening frequently,” Rigoberto Gandara said, a member of UDB.
UDB works alongside SELA by recruiting members for safety patrols through their branch the Community Self-Defense Coalition, which anyone can join.
“People also work in a detention committee to connect families with loved ones who have been detained by ICE.” Gandara said, “The needs and requests that reach the coalition are diverse, but fundamentally it is trying to grow the capacity of organizations and everyday people to engage in community self-defense, whether through patrols or rapid-response networks.”
UDB also works alongside the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a coalition near the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles. This organization helps people stay in contact with their families while they work on their case.
“I take pride in collaborating with other community members. Again, we wouldn’t be able to do that all by ourselves, right? It takes a community. So I love that we all work together. And that’s how the fundraiser was able to happen.” Cruz said.
Last year, Cruzita’s had their 10-year anniversary, which was celebrated at the cafe with the community. The cafe hosted a celebration with music, an open mic, and free food.
“It was just so beautiful to take that moment in and see how far we’ve come, from the first regulars to the new people who are still coming and seeing how they’re connecting and how we continue to grow in that way. [...] It’s taken years, you know, to cultivate this. And, you know, I try not to take it for granted. It’s beautiful.” Cruz said.
Cruz discussed the importance of feeling, what she calls, “the spirit of community.” While she explained she worries about finances as much as any other business, she cares deeply about the emotional and spiritual aspects of bringing people together.
Cruz says she wants to inspire following generations to become more involved in advocacy work and create opportunities for connection with their neighbors. For her, building solidarity is how communities can face hard times.
“This is a movement bigger than us, bigger than me, bigger than Cruzita’s,” Cruz said. “It’s a movement that’s not only happening locally within our communities but also all over the world. We have more in common with different neighborhoods all over the world, you know, than the powers that be.”
Edited by Emma Kahn and Daniela Mattson.