By Miguel Gutierrez
LOS ANGELES, June 22 (Reuters) - With customers queued up and spilling onto the sidewalk at Cookieteria by Lovely, eager to grab fresh World Cup-themed conchas, baker Erika Lopez is worried about letting some down.
The conchas, a Mexican sweet bread often eaten with hot chocolate or coffee, have become a hit in the Mexican and general communities in the area, as people demonstrate their support for their sides by chomping into their favourite colours.
"We want to give something to everyone,
and then we don't want anyone to feel like (they're) left out, like 'Oh! Where's my jersey?," said Lopez, 42, as she prepared June 20's batch of conchas in the shapes of soccer shirts (U.S., Mexico and Argentina) the golden World Cup trophy, soccer balls and team mascots.
The World Cup conchas are also extremely shareable on social media, said 15-year-old Leo Ruiz, who finds them "really cute and like, it's like ‘aww’. And then it makes you want to post and, like, take pictures of the conchas and post them.”
Los Angeles is home to millions of Mexico-born people and those of Mexican heritage and the green Mexico national team jersey can be seen on people everywhere in the sprawling metropolis.
Combining those colours and conchas is something that came naturally to Lopez.
"As a Mexican, we’re always thinking like, what can we do to be like part of everything? And soccer is a really important part of us," she said.
PASSIONATE SUPPORTERS
However, caring deeply about soccer is not simple joy for passionate supporters like Lopez, who comes from Mascota in Jalisco, Mexico.
Like a player facing a World Cup match with nerves swirling, Lopez wants to live up to her customers' expectations in supplying the conchas.
"Sometimes I'm excited, sometimes a little scared. Happy. Worried. You name it. Every emotion is there every time," said Lopez, who has lived in the U.S. for 23 years.
Indulging in a concha is a less fraught World Cup experience, and just plain fun.
Customer Nubia Wilson, 50, was picking up a box of Mexico and U.S. concha jerseys and concha soccer balls for a boy's birthday party later that day.
"The little boy loves soccer, so what better way than to showcase the conchas? Because everybody loves conchas. At least at the party I'm going to," said Wilson.
(Reporting by Miguel Gutierrez; writing by Ed White, editing by Ed Osmond)
