Old Spanish Days Fiesta: Families making homemade Mexican food to preserve tradition

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The kitchen is sizzling at Our Lady of Guadalupe Mercado during Old Spanish Days Fiesta.

"This is tradition we got generations here volunteering for years," said organizer Anthony Rodriguez of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mercado.

For Anthony Rodriguez, Fiesta is all about family. 

"We got your younger generation … great thing is we learn from each other …we support each other and this is family … one thing about guadalupe it’s all about family," said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has aunts, uncles, cousins and more than 60 godchildren hand making traditional Mexican food for the community. 

"It’s a family tradition. We’ve been doing it for about 15 years now it’s basically a family that does the volunteering at our stand for doing it for years since we were all young and we kind of grew up with it," said volunteer Leonel Mendoza of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mercado.

Hundreds of visitors waited in long lines to buy tamales, corn, tacos, and churros.

"We’ve been coming here for the past 20 years, and we’ve always enjoyed coming here ... and love their tomato ladies and sometimes we would even buy for our relatives," said visitor Araceli Dumlao of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mercado.

So far volunteers have hand-made at least a hundred cinnamon tasting churros for Fiesta.

"He’s my godfather and I grew up working at fiesta my parents worked here a lot," said volunteer Denise Recardo of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mercado.

"My hope is these younger kids realize what is important and  that’s tradition and carry on whether it’s tamales or churros whatever it is," said Rodriguez.

The Mercado will be open through Sunday at 227 North Nopal Street in Santa Barbara.