Pan dulce is the sweet bread that anchors Mexican and Latinx cuisine and its people in culture, tradition, nostalgia and history. In Mexico, pan dulces like, coricos, marranitos, and conchas are served with coffee as a breakfast ritual.

Panaderias are often in abundance and punctuate blocks and neighborhoods, their presence forming core memories. For Diego Hernandez of La Pana Bakery, which is named after a slang term for panaderias, "pana," growing up baking inside of one was a way of life for him and his family in Oaxaca, who came from a family of bakers. Now Hernandez infuses French pastry into his menu at Pana with Mexican techniques. Many panaderias in the United States pay homage to family, like Raquel Goldman’s Norte 54. Or are family-run, like Delicias Bakery and Some, who lead the way for vegan pan dulce, reconnecting vegan eaters to traditions lost to milk and butter. These bakeries often aim to use whole, quality, seasonally and locally available ingredients as a more responsible practice, like Gusto Bread, which also leans heavily on Indigenous Mexican ingredients.

Panaderias, and contemporary American pan dulce, is heralding a new era of sweet breads, one that establishes place, geographic location and seasons. And in the same breath, ushers in flavors unique to location, and bespoke to the baker.