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It's overwhelming in the best way. It's just this explosion of color and fun and floating characters and people and animals. Everywhere you look. It has the feeling of being in the most vibrant, alive, high energy marketplace.

Los Angeles is one of my favorite cities anywhere in the world. A colorful and culturally diverse metropolis bathed in sunshine. And it's a place I call home. After 22 years in Taipei, I recently moved to LA. I'm all about deep diving into my city and getting to know it better. Recently I was spending some time in downtown LA and discovered a place with a lot of history that was completely new to me, a place most angelenos don't even know exists.

And it's kind of like going into some other planet. In a lot of ways. It's just a wild experience. The Pinata district in LA is, we believe, the only one in the country.

We like to bring what the people can't go get. We try to bring a little piece of Mexico to you. That's nice. And it's also a little piece of Mexico for us as well. Yes, for everybody, because not everybody gets to travel the pinata district of Los Angeles for the mexican culture, what does the pinata represent?

I think for the mexican culture, the pinata represents everything.

I'm Janet Hsieh from masters of scale. This is off site adventures.

The Pinata district is on the edge, or no pun intended, fringe of downtown Los Angeles.

Emily Zaden is the director of the craft in America center in Los Angeles. There's perhaps no one in this city who's done more research into the pinata.

There's so much to uncover. I mean, they've become a cross cultural part of our lives.

Emily says the Pinata district of Los Angeles is a fantastic place for an introduction to these candy filled cultural icons. With almost 60 shops to choose from, loaded with floating festive objects, candies and supplies, some in warehouse sized spaces.

It's really a destination. It's everything you need for the pinata, in addition to the pinatas themselves. So all the accouterments. It is essentially where pinatas land after they're imported into the US from the Mexico border. And it's the main distribution center for pinatas wholesale wise for across the US.

Inside the shops are ceilings full of pinatas, hundreds, even thousands. Thousands. So packed you're mostly staring up at the feet of Disney princesses and superheroes. There are donkeys, cars, soccer balls, avocados, and endless traditional star pinatas, anything you can imagine.

And if we don't have it, we'll make it for you.

Ivan Saavedra is a member of one of the founding families of the Pinata district. Do you remember your first experience with a pinata?

Of course I remember the first experience of a pinata. It happened in Mexico City. I'm from Mexico City. This other kid, instead of eating the pinata, he hit me on my head. And that's my mark right there.

So that your first experience with pinata literally left a mark.

Yes.

On you.

That's scar right here.

The savage family works with pinata makers in Mexico before bringing them to La. Pinatas have been the heart and soul of mexican culture for more than 50 years. But they have a much longer history, a history that curator Emily Zaden says probably traces back 700 years to ancient China and the Silk Road and to explorers like Marco Polo.

He saw celebrations happening in China where during the spring would make these ceramic vessels, usually in the shape of an ox, and they would fill them with seeds and they would shatter them. At these ceremonies with the emperor and all the people would gather up the seeds and then take those seeds for harvest.

Pinanas migrated to Italy and Spain and centuries later, to Mexico.

Sometimes you see customers, they even start crying because they go back. Oh, I remember when I was a little girl. I remember back in the days when my daddy or my mom first got me my first pinata. So that inspired us of, you know, trying to keep innovating, bringing more mexican products. I know this is a candy store, a pinata and a toy, but it's also becoming a little more of mexican products.

Ivan says the real entrepreneur behind bringing these products to the Pinata district is his brother Victor, the first person in.

My family, the great founder of disco. I would really say the whole district, right here in the Pinata district is my brother Victor. He's the mentor, he's the godfather, he's the king.

And then after Victor, did you join or did other people join in first?

You know what? It was my brother Victor who started it, along with my brother Miguel, my brother Enrique, my brother Alberto, my sister Celine, brother Juan Carlos, and then after me, I was the last one.

There's a very big transformation I'm sure, that you've seen over the years, as you can see.

I mean, it started with four stories down the block, and now it's all the block. It's more than 60 stores and all.

Selling mexican products or pinatas either.

They're selling candy mexican products, ceramics, toys.

Do you remember what it was like running around here when you were a kid?

It was completely empty. It was very, very empty. Most of these stores were.

Now these once quiet streets are filled with music booming from countless speakers, the aromas of sizzling carne asada and fresh corn, and vendors endlessly clamoring for your attention. It's hard to imagine a time when the Pinata district wasn't sensory overload. But most of the shops actually started off as small produce stands, including Ivan and Victor Saavedra. Their store was called Saavedra produce.

They used to sell the best watermelons, and I would go there and buy a few.

Almost 30 years ago, Lorena Robleto was a young social worker who would stop by Saavedra produce. Shopping for fruit was uplifting at the.

End of her hard days, and they were very cordial. So every time I will come, I would see how things were progressing from a very small fruit stand that they had to a larger place. And then they had two units, and then next thing I knew, like, each brother had their own store. So I was impressed.

Business was on Lorena's mind in those days. She had gone back to school to get her mba, hoping to work as a business consultant with immigrant families. And she vividly remembers one day going to Victor Saavedra's new location across the street from his fruit stand, where he was now selling pinatas and candy.

And he said, I'm so excited because we're going to be able to expand, but, you know, it's expensive. I've got to pay $25,000 a month for this building. And I was like, wow, $25,000 a month. How many pinata sticks do you need to sell to be able to come up with that every month? So I said, you know, you can possibly get a loan through the small business administration. And he said, how can we do that? I said, I can show you and I can guide you. That's how I started working with him.

Lorena and Victor started planning. They agreed to sign a lease together on a building. Lorena would keep an office for her business consulting upstairs, and Victor would sell pinatas and candies on the ground floor.

One day we were talking, and it was very emotional because we were seeing a lot of progress. I brought an accountant, and they were doing the work, so things were coming along. He was very positive about improving the quality of his business and the quality of his life. So we were having dinner, and he thanked me for what I was doing, and his eyes got teary and he says, you know, I never told this to anyone, you know, but I'm not ashamed, I'm proud. He says, you know, I used to be in the entrance of the freeway and I will sell peanuts. And that's how I built myself up to this point. I mean, looking at, you know, how hard he had to work, I think, wow, you know, this man is my hero.

Their business relationship paused suddenly when Victor's wife became seriously ill. Lorena understood. She quickly found herself in the pinata business and alone.

And I was like, never in my life thought about owning a pinata business. But I was already in a situation that we had a contract, so it was a legal commitment we had. So I told my family, even if I had to bring my bed to this site, this has to work.

That was back in 2010 when Lorena said there were only about eight merchants in the Pinata district. Within a few months, shoppers started asking her for custom orders. One day, a business associate took a call about a project he believed was for a pinata that would sit on top of a car. But when she followed up, Lorena learned it was actually a request for a Honda commercial for a star pinata the size of a building that would hold a car inside. The client wanted a 27 foot tall star pinata that would open and explode with confetti.

The star had to be at least the size of a building. It was like 27ft tall. Staff that worked with me were thinking, you crazy? We can't do this, this is too much. And I said, no, no, no, we can do it and let me get the proper people that can help us. So I got a hold of an architect, an engineer, because we had to have a plan a, plan B and Plan C for failure.

Once completed, the pinata was transported by truck and hoisted with a crane.

I was sick of my stomach that I was so nervous and I kept thinking, oh, I hope that the pinata doesn't drop, because I knew that everything was on us. We couldn't afford to fail this job.

Amazingly, her plan a worked. Perhaps appropriately. Lorena's new business was called amazing pinatas. And there she was in her late forties, suddenly a cutting edge artist in the pinata world.

I have discovered parts of me. I am a risk taker, part of that also being the artist in me. I have done things that I didn't think was possible.

Lorena stayed in the Pinata district for almost a decade after that, until she moved into a new space in mid city where she is now coming up, we'll uncover the secret to how dozens of businesses in the Pinata district, despite catering to the same audience, still thrive.

Our ten year anniversary as a company was coming up and I said, you know, I really want to do something big. And we settled on the idea that we were going to take a grand vacation together.

That's Capital one business customer and pinnacle company's founder, Chris Renner, with a real life inspirational travel moment.

At the time, we had about 23 employees and we chose to invite them and their significant others to a tropical vacation to Mexico. Everyone honestly thought we were crazy. It was ten years and it was time to celebrate. As a team, we had survived the first few years of every small business, the uncertainty of are you going to make it or not? So we planned this amazing trip and we ended up at the little beachside restaurant with margaritas in hand and toes in sand and the sun was setting. It was magical just to be there together.

Using his Capital one Venturex business card, Chris was able to apply his travel rewards to fund his first company trip, which has become an annual tradition. This inspirational travel moment is part of Capital one business spotlight on real entrepreneurs and their businesses. Off site adventures. To hear more stories from real business owners, visit capitalone.com business hub. Again, that's capitalone.com business hub.

So, 1991, almost about the same time for my family.

Yes, almost about the same time.

Lucy of Lucy's quesadillas tells me she's been one of the food vendors in the Pinata district for more than 30 years. Almost as long as the Saavedra family. She's watched the boom since then, growing to thousands of visitors. Now on the weekends, it's a treat for first timers like me and for.

The community, because every single Mexican grew up with a pinata.

Pinata store owner Ivan Saavedra.

Again, whether if it was your party, whether if it was Christmas, every single little excuse to start a party, you.

Know, so would you say it's kind of like if you see a pinata, then you know, okay, there's gonna be a fiesta?

Of course. Yeah, it's gonna be a big party.

While we talk, it takes me back to the mexican influences in my life. Growing up in Houston, pinatas were the highlight of my birthday parties as a kid. As friends would arrive, I would run to my father's closet to pull out one of his ties to use as a blindfold. And my sister would help me spin and spin to be the first to take a swing at my pinata, almost always designed in my favorite shape, a burro or a donkey. But even though the modern day pinata has become the centerpiece of our contemporary celebrations, Emily says, it's a craft that we take for granted just the idea.

Of the handwork that goes in, and it's for something that's meant to be mashed and smashed and destroyed, which is another amazing, beautiful, poetic part of what pinatas signify.

Even for Lorena, a veteran of the business, watching her amazing pinatas destroyed is a bit heartbreaking.

Seeing that being turned into pieces probably would be hard for any of us. I think that when the customer leaves, it's sort of like that's what it ends. The customer came, took the pinata, loved it, and send us pictures, and we don't think what happened. We fall in love with our products, but we know they're going to be broken. But at the same time, we have the pride that we made something beautiful. You know, that's part of the cycle of a pinata.

Lorena's latest creation is a pinata you don't break with a stick. Instead, this is a pinata that spins. It's pulled by a ribbon, unraveling in an eruption of color and confetti.

It's beautiful because when you see it, you pull the ribbon and you see it spinning and it has details and it just, it throws all the candy, you know? And if you put confetti, it's just an explosion.

And Lorena's pinatas were just featured in a PBS documentary from craft in America. It's an impressive career that inadvertently began exchanging greetings with one very humble man selling watermelons. And what have you learned from your brother Victor?

You know, to be humble, respectful.

Next to Ivan Saavedra, his brother Victor sits quietly listening.

I wouldn't be here because of him, to be honest. I'm sorry. I get emotional, but, I mean, I'm chasing imitation of him, to be honest.

Victor, the hero himself, who started out selling peanuts at a freeway entrance, has a few words to add in Spanish. When I ask, are you proud? He responds simply, saying, their parents taught them to be responsible, to live with honesty and integrity, to never forget. They started with nothing and to remember it's family and community that are most important. So you want to continue this with the next generation as well? You want to keep going. Is this somebody from the next generation? Hi, Christopher. Nice to meet you. And now it's their spouses, in laws, and children who work here, too. The Saavedra family runs ten shops in the district other founding families operate multiple stores, too, expanding their family businesses into a family empire. So how does it work to have so many businesses all catering to the same audience?

I literally grew up right here. Everybody knows me in this block. It's a competition, but it's a healthy competition. If you have a customer who's willing to buy the hosta from you, but you're missing out a pinata, and your neighbor has the pinata, why not go get the pinata? I mean, I'd rather help, you know, others than be on my own, because, I mean, if you're on your own, I think you can struggle a lot more, you know?

So now the Pinata district. Is this whole ecosystem thriving on mutually beneficial relationships? A symbiosis. The Saavedra family and artist Lorena Robleto intertwining stories of an entrepreneurial spirit and an entrepreneurial artist who have elevated the pinata not only here in the Pinata district of Los Angeles, but far beyond, who took huge risks and with their tireless efforts, brought validation to the craft and help spread its enormous influence worldwide. Curator Emily Zaden says their stories should also be an inspiration for each of us.

We need to find the beauty in our world more than ever. So seeking it out in things that are around us and accessible, and that maybe we overlook or take for granted. Hopefully, you know, we can do more that, because it does exist if we look for it. And, you know, pinatas are just one example of where craft is allowed. People care to use their creativity to make objects that not only are beautiful, but are intended to make people happy. So let's find that in the world and make more of it, because we need it.

We do need it. And we can find it in some unlikely places, like in a few blocks in the shadow of a city skyline. So here's hoping your business travels become an unexpected source of wonder to go find your own places of surprise and beauty. For offsite adventures, I'm Janet Shea. See this story come to life in our video series on mastersofscale.com. Offsite. Offsite Adventures is made in alliance with Capital one business. Mary Beth Kirchner produced the show with support from Juliet Luini. Our executive producers are Jay Punjabi, Erica Flynn, and Mary Beth Kirchner. Offside Avengers was made with John Herschen, Samantha Johnson, Chris Olsen, and the team at Revelator. Original music and sound design by Ryan Holiday. Mixing and mastering by Brian Pugh. Our writers are Kate Turgovnik, May, and Dan Nealon. Our head of podcasts is lital Malad. Special thanks to Jordan Larson Warner Afonso Bravo. Katie Blazing, Anya Profumo, Jodine Dorse, Sara Tarter, Chaz Edwards Samantha Hennig Nikki Williams Kelsey Capitano Tim Cronin Sami Uputa Justin Winslow Colin Haworth Brandon Klein Brad Worl and Lori Hoffman. And I'm Janet Shea, your host and perpetual business traveler. Visit mastersofscale.com offsite to learn more about the show.

Keep traveling.