A newly painted mural on 24th Street featuring traditional Russian nesting dolls and all manner of bread is heralding a change: Cinderella Bakery, which has served homestyle Russian pastries and entrees for more than 70 years in the Inner Richmond, is set to open a new store in the Mission at the beginning of next year.
The bakery will replace the former La Victoria at 2937 24th St. at the intersection with Alabama Street.
Marika and Mike Fishman, Cinderella’s owners, commissioned the mural, which was painted by Susan Cervantes and her team at Mission-based arts nonprofit Precita Eyes.
The mural, named “Viva Victoria,” stands 12 feet tall and sweeps across the building’s facade. It depicts 21 “matryoshkas,” or Russian nesting dolls, some of them Russian-looking with fair skin and blue eyes and others depicted as indigenous and Latino. One is an indigenous woman with two long braids who stands in front of a table with Russian rye bread, while another wears a dress made to resemble the concha, the popular Mexican pastry.
A banner of chamomile flowers, Russia’s national flower, weaves across the top of the mural. Below, a nesting doll wears a blue skirt and striped shawl. In her hands, she holds a monarch butterfly, a symbol of the souls of visiting ancestors in Mexican indigenous cultures, and others, that has become associated with the immigrant rights movement.
“We wanted to integrate the Latino culture with the Russian culture,” said Cervantes, who directed the project with assistance from the muralists Ernesto Paul, Paola Reyes Melendez, Gabi Morets and others. It was brought together over the span of a few months with input from the Fishmans, Mission residents, and even some of the muralist’s own Russian roommates, said Kerra Hendrickson, one of the assisting artists.
For those who are familiar with the history of the building, the mural also tells a neighborhood story that goes back decades.
In 2018, the Fishmans bought the building that had long housed La Victoria, a legacy family-owned panadería that operated for more than 65 years and was a cornerstone of the Mission District. Cinderella Bakery had to overcome some challenges to pick up the baton.
The move of a Russian bakery into the Mission did not initially go down well. The month after La Victoria vacated its space, Fishman was threatened with a boycott by Mission activists concerned about the departure of a longtime Latino business.
But La Victoria’s departure was no case of gentrification. The bakery had struggled for years and was roiled by a family conflict. Fishman bought the building housing the bakery only after its founding family evicted their own tenants who were running La Victoria at that time — which was a condition of an interfamilial lawsuit.
The tactics employed by Mission activists rankled Fishman, a former refugee whose Jewish family was banished to Siberia before fleeing the Soviet Union due to persecution.
It has been seven years due to the financing and permit process, as well as COVID-related delays, but Cinderella is now close to opening — and, in that time, the initially cold neighborhood groups have come around to welcoming the move.
In order to open Cinderella, Fishman had to comply with numerous permit requirements for new businesses opening in a cultural district. One requirement was commissioning the mural, which pays direct homage to the beloved former La Victoria.
The “Aztec Dancer Nesting Doll” in the far-right corner wears a traditional feathered headdress and holds in its hands a sign that says, “Con respeto a La Victoria” — respect to La Victoria. “It was important to us to honor the legacy business that had been there before,” Cervantes said.
“We’ve had so many community members come by and say that the mural is really special,” she added, “I think that was what was hoped for.”
