Churro legacy honored at S.J. Giants’ ballpark
Hipolito Cerda has been making the treats at the stadium for three decades
SAN JOSE » When Stephanie Dudem and her 13-yearold son Stelios went to Excite Ballpark last month to watch their first San Jose Giants game since the pandemic, they quickly crossed off one of the fist items on their checklist: getting a churro.
“They’re crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and they’re warm, and they’re cinnamony, and sugary,” Dudem said. “They’re delicious.”
The Pacifica mom and son weren’t the only ones who savored the fried dough dessert that evening while watching the Giants take on the Stockton Ports.
It was “Día De Los Churros,” one of several Saturday games each season when the Giants promote the churro and the man who has been making them fresh at the park for about three decades — Hipolito Cerda.
For many years, the team has been branding and selling merchandise inspired by the churros Cerda fries up during each home game.
“I feel privileged,” Cerda said of the churro promotions. “It’s something that I wasn’t expecting in my life, but I appreciate,” he said outside his Olimpos Churros stand just off the third-base line in Excite Ballpark, the former Municipal Stadium.
The team has ramped up the promotions as part of Minor League Baseball’s drive, called Copa de la
Diversión, to better connect teams with their Latino fan base. Five times a year, the team plays by the name of San Jose Churros and wears jerseys and hats featuring cartoon churro characters.
Only one churro night remains this season, on Sept. 4.
At the last event on Aug. 14, fans who arrived early were given an orange bobblehead of a San Jose Churro, a personified dessert
adorned with sparkly markings of sugar that is holding another churro and wearing a cowboy-style hat in a nod to Cerda, who dons one every night he’s at the park.
In past seasons, the team has given away Cerda bobbleheads that, of course, had him holding up a churro.
The official hat worn by the players on Churro nights shows the churro figure with a cowboy hat, using two hands to swing a cinnamon stick bat, licking upper lip, eyes focused as if waiting for a pitch.
Another figurine was a small replica of Cerda’s previous churro vending cart, with the words “Since 1976” on the side — the year he began selling churros.
Cerda, who says he is “between 60 and 70 years
old,” came from Michoacán, Mexico, where he used to work many jobs and used to deliver churros, honey and cheese.
The former construction worker currently lives in Castroville. In addition to baseball games, he has sold his churros outside South Bay churches, at the Salinas Rodeo and in downtown San Jose during Christmas in the Park.
“I enjoy it because I’m out talking to the people,” Cerda said.
About a decade ago, some fans started coming to the baseball games wearing shirts that read, “I’m only here for the churros” with a picture of Cerda.
“These are the best churros around,” said East San Jose resident Joe Nieto, adding that they’re a lot better than the ones sold at Oracle
Park, which he described as “microwave churros.”
The other good thing about Cerda’s churros, he said, is the cost — $3.
Mike McDonald, who has been a San Jose Giants fan since they were known as the San Jose Bees, got his own cowboy hat signed by Cerda.
“If I meet people here who’ve never had one, I’ll go over there and buy churros for them,” McDonald said.
His wife, Mary, said the churros are “superfresh, because they’re right out of the fryer. It just melts in your mouth.”
“I try to keep everything as fresh as possible. That’s why I start cooking when the game starts, or a little bit before the game starts,” Cerda said.
Cerda checks the dough’s consistency before loading it into a hopper that dispenses portions into a vat of hot corn oil. After a couple minutes, Cerda pulls the sticks from the fryer and drops them into a bin of cinnamon sugar mix, coating them by hand before tossing them into a display case to sell.
“When the people say, ‘I’m here just for you, for the churros,’ that’s my payment,” he said.
Longtime season ticket holders Robert Freiri 57, and his wife, Bridget Freiri, 55, of Los Gatos love it that the team promotes the churros and Cerda.
“It’s unique; it’s great because it’s something we all sort of identify with, and (Cerda) is just a great dude,” Robert Freiri said.
“He’s part of the fabric of this ballpark and this team. The players come and go,” Freiri said, “but he’s been here forever.”