Susanna MacManus, Longtime Owner of LA’s Original Taqueria Cielito Lindo, Dies at Age 82 | Eater LA
"A family-run Olvera Street taquería founded in 1934 after Christine Sterling asked Aurora Guerrero to develop a different recipe, which led Guerrero to settle on taquitos covered in her original avocado sauce. Its signature “combination number one”—an order of two beef taquitos drowned in a complex avocado salsa and a side of refried beans with melted cheese—became iconic; customers slurp the salsa from their plates and order it to-go. Second-generation co-owner Susanna MacManus (born June 12, 1943; died June 25 at age 82 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease) was the longtime face of the place: she stepped in to run it in 2001 after her mother Ana Natalia died in 2000 and ran it alongside sister Diana (CFO) while sister Marianna remained a silent partner. Susanna earned a bachelor’s degree at Cal State Los Angeles and a master’s degree in Spanish at UCLA, taught Introduction to Spanish at Occidental College in the 1980s and 1990s while completing Ph.D. coursework, and continued to represent the family business at events (including a book release at Vroman’s in Pasadena where her team served the iconic taquitos). In a 2017 interview the author remembers Susanna’s willingness to share the famous salsa recipe — “Why not? I’ll give it to you,” said Susanna with one corner of her mouth turned up — and her energetic public presence. “She loved being on stage, but above all, carrying on the legacy of the family,” says her son Carlos MacManus Jr. “You know, she even tried to be hip with all the lingo with the music, that new music to keep up with the current generation,” says Carlos MacManus Jr., and Carlos Eduardo MacManus Jr. recalls that “The women always took care of business, and my mom grew up very independent since her mom, Ana Natalia, always worked.” Her daughter Viviana remembered how Susanna connected with customers: “I loved how she would talk to random people [in line], like this older gentleman with his grandkid and he would say, ‘I would come here with my grandfather as a kid and now I’m taking my grandchild,’” and “She was so touched by that importance.” In 2017 the taquería was featured on CNN’s Parts Unknown, where the late Anthony Bourdain discussed Mexican culture in Los Angeles with Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano and comedian Al Madrigal over plates of olive green salsa. The spot has long been seen as a gathering place and a touchstone of immigrant Los Angeles; as Carlos Eduardo MacManus Jr. put it, “Mom always thought of the restaurant as a sort of nexus or a gathering place of solidarity and community for the immigrant population in Los Angeles.” The business remains in family hands as a fourth generation sorts out next steps, and the line keeps moving on Olvera Street." - Bill Esparza
