Los Angeles' faux Mexican market is Olvera Street, just off Los Angeles street downtown. It dates back to the 19teens or 19twenties, and is a bunch of shops and stalls selling inexpensive Mexican folk art. The prices are usually roughly Tijuana size, which means that it is much more than, say, the Tonala suburb of Guadalajara, and much less than one's average Mexican folk art store in the rest of the country. They always have oodles of Days of the Dead folk arts stuff, the mass produced but nonetheless charming stuff. Our dollar stores here, by contrast, get mostly saint candles, which are cool, and inexpensive, but not quite Dias de Los Muertos. I've never owned a saint candle, and I've never been to Spain, but I've been to Oklahoma, and I'm planning to watch "Angel" on television tonight.
I remember July. It seems long ago now. Welcome, October,
my soul feels a giant forest festival coming on.