The two men browsing in Benjamin Santoyo's downtown Los Angeles produce store acted like many of his customers, not so much interested in fruit and vegetables as in the enormous pinatas of Winnie the Pooh, The Incredibles, and an orange fish named Nemo, all bobbing from a string tied to the ceiling.
But theirs was an undercover visit on behalf of Disney Enterprises Inc. and four other entertainment industry giants aiming to stop the sale of counterfeit pinatas just as the bust-it-up party activity has become about as mainstream at Southland kids parties as cake, streamers and tortilla chips.
Disney and the other companies, in what experts said was an understandable move to protect their popular cartoon and character properties, filed copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits against Santoyo and another nearby shop owner for allegedly selling the counterfeit pinatas.
Although Santoyo settled last month for an undisclosed sum, word of the legal action against these two small Los Angeles vendors -- who peddle their wares in an informal pinata district centered along Olympic Boulevard and Central Avenue -- has reverberated through the garages, backyards and warehouses of pinata makers as far away as Santa Ana, who worry that they too will be targeted.
But will they stop making the images of Cinderella and Dora?
"Without that, we don't have much of a business," said South Los Angeles pinata maker Marta Garcia. "We need to be careful, but it's hard because the demand is for the characters on television and in the theaters."
Although pinatas in Southern California have become a popular, crossover game at kids parties regardless of ethnicity, for many Latino parents, especially those with Mexican roots, bringing home a bulging, larger-than-life pinata is a joyful tradition and the whimsical centerpiece of a family party.
"This reminds me of when I was a child and we would go to the market to look for pinatas for parties," said Leti Ramirez, 34, a mother of two and native of Ensenada who was looking for the largest Winnie the Pooh pinata she could find on a recent weekday. "I would not want to buy them any other way."
A cottage industry of pinata makers, known as pinateros, works to satisfy this specialized local demand. They produce renditions of cartoon characters that are primarily sold in markets and other small shops in heavily Latino neighborhoods.
