Mike’s Foreign Auto in Hermosa Beach passed on to next generation immigrant
Neighbor Fred, new owner Darwin Alvarado, 30-year customers Bill and Ronnet Carafici, Margo, Sarkis, Mike and Chant Vartanian, and long time customers Linda Parna and Don Narra. Photos Syrian immigrant Mike Vartanian is easing into retirement, after 32 years of building Mike’s Foreign Auto into one of the South Bay’s most trusted auto repair garages. Last Saturday, he held a farewell barbecue at his Hermosa Beach garage for his long time customers. But Mike’s Foreign Auto will live on at a new location, as a partnership between Vartanian and Honduran immigrant Darwin Alvarado, Vartanian’s protégé for the past two decades. The new Mike’s Foreign Auto is at 2700 W. Artesia Blvd., in Redondo Beach. Vartanian plans to continue working part time for one more year. Vartanian and his wife Margo moved to Redondo Beach with sons Sarkis and Chant and daughter Hilda in 1979. “Our children were reaching military age, and as Christian’s we didn’t believe in the fighting that was going on,” Margo said. With money Mike started saving when he began repairing cars at age 13, the couple bought the Redondo Beach home they still live in and the corner at Artesia Boulevard and Prospect Avenue, where…
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