Corona-based Miguel’s Jr. is marking its 50th anniversary this year. That’s just one of two milestones for co-founder Mary Vasquez.
Vasquez fulfilled a long-held dream on May 22, picking up her high school equivalency diploma from Corona-Norco Adult School. The ceremony was held at Corona High School, a few blocks from the original fast food restaurant she opened with her husband, the late Mike R. Vasquez, in 1975.
Miguel’s Jr. founder Mary Vasquez shows off her diploma at Corona-Norco Unified School District’s Adult Education commencement. (Photo courtesy of Miguel’s Jr.)Her family, who still run the chain, had dinner in the restaurant before driving over.
“I was so nervous! I don’t know why,” she said. “I said to myself this lady of 82 years is going to walk with little kids of 21, 22. I felt better when I walked into the room. I saw a lot of people of maybe 30, 40, 50, 60. Then I felt better.”
Mary Vasquez recently sat down in the dining room to reminisce about the business with her son Javier Vasquez, who is president and chief executive officer of the company.
Mike and Mary Vasquez were pillars of the Corona business community who had their story read into the congressional record by Rep. Ken Calvert in 2009.
Mike was a contractor and Arizona native who met Mary on a trip to central Mexico. They married in 1964 and settled in San Bernardino. But in 1973, Mike acquired a property in Corona and decided to give food service a try. They opened a full service restaurant named Miguel’s after Mike’s grandfather.
It was not an immediate success and didn’t have a great location, Mary said. But two years later they had the opportunity to acquire a drive-thru near the high school and decided to go for it.
Mary Vasquez, founder of Miguel’s Jr and her son Javier Vasquez, the company’s chief executive offer, stand in front of their Corona founded restaurant on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)The first Miguel’s Jr. is at 1039 W. Sixth St. Unlike the sleek newer buildings in the fast food chain, this one reflects its origins in the mid-20th century. Javier Vasquez said it originally had a walk-up window but Mike enclosed the patio to create a dining room. Javier said it’s been renovated about six times since then.
Miguel’s Jr. was a hit with teenagers from the high school and became known for its house-made hot sauce, which it still hands out in little cups.
Mary Vasquez has many memories of the kids.
“Now they’re in their 60s. They say, ‘Yeah, we used to be in line.’”
“We were very privileged because the police were very, very nice to us. We used to sometimes get a line from Sixth Street to Lincoln Avenue, and we never got a ticket.”
She said Mike Vasquez opened a second Miguel’s Jr. in Corona because he was afraid that the line of students would cause an accident.
Miguel’s Jr. now has 23 restaurants in Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties. The newest restaurant opened last November in Upland, near the Los Angeles County line.
The menu features burritos, tacos and sides based on Mary’s recipes. Beverages include house-made lemonade and horchata.
Mary Vasquez, founder of Miguel’s Jr points to the menu items at the Corona founded restaurant on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)The original Miguel’s Jr. serves one unique item, chile Colorado, in burritos and bowls.
The family also has one full-service restaurant, Miguel’s California Mexican Cocina, in the Shops at Dos Lagos, a shopping center beside the 15 Freeway in Corona. It is not the 1973 restaurant, which closed in 2000 after cutting a deal with the city, which wanted the land for an expanding auto dealership.
The full service restaurant has its own menu with such items as fajitas, garlic marinated shrimp and birria flautas. It also has a full bar with margarita flights. It’s currently pouring a 50th anniversary Herradura Double Barrel Reposado Tequila.
Mary Vasques said her favorites include chile verde, because it was her husband’s recipe, and a mole enchilada.
“My son insisted I start making mole almost 20 years ago. I didn’t want to because it was a very, very hard dish to do,” she said.
“We used to have it with a big piece of chicken, beans and rice, but the sales weren’t as great as now because my son decided to serve it in enchiladas. When we used to sell the chicken mole plate some people would get scared and say, how can we eat this? I’d tell them, use your hands. Then lick your fingers! Because it’s the best way to eat mole, and some people do it.”
Mary Vasquez said she likes to take care of the customers at the full-service restaurant.
“I love to work at the Jr’s. but it’s different because over here it’s food to go. Just a few people come inside.”
“Fast food, you just prepare it, give it to the customer, have a nice day. The sit-down restaurant, you kind of baby them. You want to make sure they come back.”
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Networking revived Mary’s dream of completing her education, a story she tells in an Instagram video.
She was from a “very, very small town” called Santiago Maravatio, Guanajuato, where only six years of schooling was available.
When she and Mike moved to San Bernardino, she felt limited because she had “zero English.” But she discovered night school.
“My dream was to have an education here because when I came from Mexico I found out adults can go to school. In Mexico, you don’t get that privilege.”
Moving to Corona and starting up Miguel’s got in the way.
“It was too much for me because my husband and I ran the business. So I had to run the business, take care of my kids, making sure they did their homework and went to school. So I quit. It was too much. But I always felt I failed in that.”
She told the story to a school administrator at a dinner with some Corona leaders. A few days later, she got a call from the school district inviting her to discuss her options.
“She told me you have two choices. You can get a high school diploma but you have to come to school. Or we can give you a diploma for all the stuff you do for the city. I said no. I want to come to school.”
Mary Vasquez passed the General Educational Development exam on her first try. She said classes were tough but that she got through them with God’s help.
She liked English classes but not mathematics.
“Fractions! But you know what? I think what they liked about me I was honest. I told them I don’t have a foundation in math. I did the first subject and they told me, we understand you and we’ll let you choose another subject. I told them English because even though I was working a lot, I love to read.”
She spoke at the graduation ceremony, telling her classmates, “Never stop learning. Never stop believing.”
Mary Vasquez, founder of Miguel’s Jr and her son Javier Vasquez, the company’s chief executive offer, speak to each other at a booth in their Corona founded restaurant on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG) Mary Vasquez, founder of Miguel’s Jr and her son Javier Vasquez, the company’s chief executive offer, on left sits at a booth in their Corona founded restaurant on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)Javier Vasquez said his mother is working on a new tamale recipe for Miguel’s Jr.’s holiday season.
Even though 1975 is the chain’s 50th anniversary, he doesn’t know the exact date it opened.
“It’s a moving target. We’re going to put it in July, but my parents didn’t have documentation. My sister couldn’t find it.”
A 50th anniversary mural towers over Mary Vasquez at Miguel’s Jr.’s Upland restaurant. The chain’s first restaurant opened in Corona in 1975. (Photo courtesy of Miguel’s Jr.)The Upland restaurant features an anniversary mural, and Javier Vasquez expects to do some kind of customer appreciation program.
Mary Vasquez said Javier nudges her to keep the menu evolving. The chain recently added french fries to the menu, a move that has been successful. He emphasized that the fries are never frozen.
“We don’t have freezers in the restaurants. My mom was always ‘no freezers.’”
He said another Miguel’s Jr. will be following another trend.
“Our next thing is chicken bites with our hot sauce. Chicken is popular everywhere. It’s honoring our past and marrying it with something that’s trending.”
Information: miguelsjr.com, miguelsrestaurant.com
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