Porto's became a touchstone for generations of Cuban immigrants in Los Angeles.
Rosa Porto, the baker and Cuban émigré who founded the popular Porto’s Bakery & Café chain in Southern California with her family, died Friday, according to the business’s Instagram page. She was 89.
Porto came from Manzanillo, Cuba. After Fidel Castro took power on the island in 1959, Porto lost her job as a manager at a cigar distributor, and her husband, Raul, was sent to a labor camp. Porto, who had grown up learning the recipes of her Spanish-born mother, supported her family by making and selling brandy-soaked sponge cakes, though Castro’s regime forbade private citizens from owning businesses.
It also became a touchstone for generations of Cuban immigrants in Los Angeles. “It is not only a place where you can get extraordinary food, but as a Cuban exile, it is a place of solace,” actor Andy Garcia once said. “When I need a cultural fix, that’s where I go.”
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