Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says the best pork fried carnitas are made at Carnitas El Rincon in Redwood City by immigrants

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KGO) — Many communities have sister city relationships with cities in other countries, but Redwood City’s connection to a town in the Mexican state of Michoacan is so extraordinary, it even got a shout out by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

“In Redwood City, there are more residents of Aguililla, Michoacán than in Aguililla, Michoacan,” said Sheinbaum last December.

The connection is deep and spans many generations.

The first people from Aguililla come to Redwood City in the 1940s. Friends and relatives soon followed. By the time Redwood City and Aguililla formalized their sister city agreement in 2017, it was estimated that some 18,000 residents of Redwood City had roots in Aguililla — about the same number of residents living in Aguililla itself.

Pedro Baez’s father emigrated from Aguililla in 1978 and opened a bakery.

“He was the main baker, and we were the helpers,” said Baez, who started working with his father in Panaderia Michoacan when he was 8. He and his brother now run the bakery and a taqueria at a second location along Middlefield Road in the North Fair Oaks area.

Immigrants from Aguililla have given rise to the most popular Mexican businesses, like Chavez Supermarket, founded by David Chavez.

The area also became the go-to destination for carnitas, a version of slow-cooked pork popular in Michoacán.

Sheinbaum raved about them when reminiscing about her time living in the Peninsula.

At Carnitas El Rincon, they start cooking them at 6 in the morning. Workers layer different cuts of pork in a pot that’s about 3 feet wide. The whole process takes about four hours.

Middlefield Road, which once had other businesses like Aguililla Market and Rincón Tarasco, has started to change in part due to the high cost of housing.

“The housing situation has taken a toll here,” said Juan Carlos Prado of the North Fair Oaks Community Council. “We see less businesses from Michoacán like I saw when I was a child growing up here. Many of the people I grew up here with have moved away.”

Marianne Despres grew up at her father’s grocery store on Middlefield. While her father is from Argentina, they sold imported products to the Latino community.

She also moved away to go to college, then to study at Le Cordon Blue in Paris and then to work at The French Laundry. But she eventually came back to Redwood City and opened a café selling empanadas at the same location her father had his store.

“I just thought it would be such a full circle moment for me, to come back and introduce my product to this neighborhood and build on my parents’ legacy,” Despres said.

Pedro Baez feels the same running the taqueria and bakery.

“It’s the legacy of my father. Now we’re carrying on,” he said.