Family Firm Makes U.S.-Style Pinatas : Enterprise: To attract non-Latino customers, the Santa Ana company offers the traditional Mexican figures in such unorthodox forms as Disney characters.

Aurora Dixon, a Central American native who came to the United States in 1969, was accustomed to fancier pinatas from her homeland and disliked the simple four-pointed stars and burros typically imported from Tijuana.

So, years later, Dixon decided to create her own pinatas in the dusty garage of her Hacienda Heights home. She began turning out brightly colored clowns, dinosaurs and other creations for her friends and family.

When her brother, Oscar Vargas, saw her pinatas, he sensed a good investment and suggested they start a business together. Two years ago, they formed a company called Pinata Party, which they operate out of a small industrial building in Santa Ana. Vargas knew it didn’t make good business sense to try to compete with the traditional pinata--makers in Mexico, so he opted instead to make non-ethnic variations that would sell to mainstream America.

And yet it is the Mexican tradition that familiarized most people north of the border with the colorful hanging figures . The Cinco de Mayo holiday, which takes place this weekend, is one of the busiest times of the year for Vargas and Dixon. Pinatas are used to decorate homes, workplaces and fiestas during the Mexican holiday, which commemorates the Mexican victory over the French forces of Louis Napoleon in the Battle of Puebla 128 years ago.

The use of pinatas--hollow figures filled with candies or other treats and bashed open by enthusiastic children--is now popular in much of the United States, especially in border states such as California and Texas.

In Mexico, initially, pinatas were reserved for Lent, the pre-Easter season observed by Christians. The smashing of the figure was said to represent Christian faith destroying Satan.

Traditionally, pinatas were made in the shape of five-pointed stars. A papier-mache mold encased a clay pot, which held candies, cookies, nuts, trinkets and other gifts. The mold was decorated with colorful paper.

Today, the variety of pinatas has greatly expanded. And clay pots have been largely replaced with cardboard interiors--a safer, although less attractive, evolution.

Pinata Party, however, no longer uses cardboard, newspapers or wire that will rust over a period of time. Instead, its pinatas are made out of Styrofoam molds and covered with flame-retardant crepe paper.

The company has branched out to produce pinatas for birthdays, baptisms and other occasions. “We don’t want people to call us only on Cinco de Mayo. . . . We’re trying to do pinatas for everyday parties like luaus, wedding parties, showers and anniversaries,” Vargas said.

To make his pinatas more appealing to people not of Mexican descent, Vargas obtained licenses to create pinatas based on Walt Disney characters, the Peanuts comic strip and, more recently, the highly popular TV cartoon “The Simpsons.”

“Kids love to follow whatever is in,” Vargas said.

The strategy seems to be working. Vargas says his company has more orders than it can fill.

Pinata Party’s sales doubled last year to $500,000, Vargas said. The company is not yet turning a profit, though, because most of the money is being invested into supplies and expanded production space, he said.

Dixon admits to being initially skeptical of her brother’s plan to quit his job and start the business. “My brother was leaving a good job with a software company in Costa Mesa,” said Dixon, 39.

Vargas, a 37-year-old engineer who also holds a master’s degree in business from the American Graduate School of International Management, reassured her that he had nothing to lose. “I saw a big business opportunity,” he said. “I thought, ‘I’m single. I have a lot of time, and if I lose my house and car, I can move in with my sister.’ ”

From the first humble 25 pinatas a week made in Dixon’s garage, the company now produces 160 a day and has more than 100 regular customers.

“Now I am turning down new accounts because I am not prepared to grow that fast,” Vargas said.

He is in negotiations with a local manufacturer to help manage the company’s production operation and make the company more efficient, he said.

“I think that’s where we can make our money,” Vargas said, by branching out and manufacturing to party stores across the country.

There are a handful of people who make pinatas out of their homes in the United States, Vargas said, but he is unaware of any major pinata manufacturers in the country.

Most pinatas are imported from Mexico and sell for about $10. Pinata Party sells its hollowed figures for $20.

Pinata-making is a laborious, monotonous trade, said Vargas, whose mother used to make pinatas with her sister when she was growing up in Panama. Nevertheless, he and Dixon derive great satisfaction, they say, from carrying on the cultural tradition