SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Just in time for Día de los Muertos, La Esperanza Bakery in South Sacramento celebrates 50 years this October.
When the panaderia first opened its doors in October of 1969, founder and long-time owner Salvador Plasencia could never have known how the business would grow to be a staple of South Sacramento. Despite having expanded their services, the bakery is still churning out the best pan dulce in the region.
For 50 years, La Esperanza Bakery has been open, and for about 40 of those years, they've been making pan de muerto for a large community of Día de los Muertos celebrators.
Pan de muerto, translated to "bread of the dead," is a traditional sweet bread specially made for Día de los Muertos.
The holiday is celebrated from October 31 to November 2. Pan de muerto is an extremely important element of the festivities as both a nice treat and as an item to leave at a loved one's altar. Sure, it's a simple sweet bread, but it's certainly not your average pan dulce.
"Pan dulce is your essential. It's your equivalent of a danish or a cinnamon roll," said supervisor at La Esperanza Bakery Jorge Plasencia. "Pan de muerto is more of a special bread for special occasions, so a lot of bakeries don’t make it often."
Pan de muerto is special. It is different. It's distinctive taste and appearance separates it from a typical sweet bread, while its design is connected in a culturally significant way to Día de los Muertos.
"Basically, one of the most important parts is the anise seed," Jorge said. "It gives it a distinct flavor. We make a dough that kind of looks like a skeleton type. We put that on top. It's kind of a criss-cross, but it's supposed to signify bones."
At its roots, La Esperanza is a family endeavor. Salvador, who emigrated from San Julián, Jalisco in the 1960s, turned the business over to his family before he passed. Jorge Plasencia is Salvador's grandson. He works alongside Natali Plasencia and several other grandchildren, overseeing many of the operations connected to La Esperanza Bakery and Store.
Even in Salvador's day, La Esperanza was busy, but Jorge estimates that these days, the store sells close to five thousand pieces of pan de muerto in the weeks leading up to Día de los Muertos.
"For the pan de muerto we are pretty busy. Usually, it's the first few days before Día de los Muertos. Three days prior to that we're pretty busy, and then sometimes the days after."
However, the arrival of Day of the Dead doesn't necessary mean the chaos is just starting in the store. Holidays like this one just add an extra dash of hubbub.
Arriving at the location on Franklin Blvd., you will almost always see a line out the door, no matter the day. At least half a dozen employees stand behind the long, L-shaped counter, hustling to grab bread, cakes, and other sweets. One might see Natali or Jorge behind the counter as well, manning the cash register or moving the line steadily along.
On a daily basis, Jorge says, La Esperanza Bakery sells about one to two thousand pieces of bread. So, five thousand pieces of pan de muerto over the course of a month is not so difficult to handle.
The bakers at La Esperanza start the day around 5:45 to 6 a.m. From then on, they could be making bread until 3 p.m. Even after the last baker has gone home, more people come to finish up baking the breads that are in constant danger of selling out, such as the conchas, elotes, and puerquitos.
The demand really is that high. The customers keep flowing in.
"We have anywhere from 7 to 12 different types of breads that we make a day. Our bakery is open from 6 am to about 9 pm. Sometimes during the slow months we finish baking at about 7, and when we're super busy could be around 9:30 - 10 o'clock."
And yet, despite the craziness that may ensue in the days leading up to Day of the Dead, the employees at La Esperanza Bakery still find time for their own Día de los Muertos celebration.
"We have an area where we kind of make our own table for Día de los Muertos," Jorge said. "We have decorations. There's an offering table that we have. We have a picture of our founder--our grandfather--Salvador Plasencia."
When Salvador visits his ofrenda, you can bet he'll be proud to see that La Esperanza refuses to slow down. 50 years on, and the pan dulce is still sold in droves, with customers leaving satisfied and smiling as they clutch their bags of bread.
With Day of the Dead on the horizon, La Esperanza is about to be flooded with orders for pan de muerto and other delicious baked goodies. Find some time to stop by the storefront on Franklin Blvd. and savor a sugary treat before it's too late!
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