Walking in the door of Del Rey Tortilleria at 1023 W. 18th St. in Pilsen is a deceptive and captivating experience.

Captivating because the senses are instantly engaged: The tortilla-making machinery loudly clanks away. Scents of ground corn and lime combine with the aroma of baked masa, or corn dough. A perfectly light, puffy, warm tortilla comes out ready to be eaten. Pedestrians walk in to buy a fresh dozen for a quarter. Fresh masa, for those attemptingto make tortillas or tamales at home, is also available.

The deception comes from the fact that the tortilleria seems nondescript when, in reality, it is one of three factories owned by the Toledo family, each of which cranks out nearly a half-million tortillas a day.

It all started 49 years ago when Indiana native Jeannette Toledo, now 80, opened her first tortilla factory in Pilsen. Today, this location, now run by her daughter,Yolanda Carrillon, and the other two locations -- one in Cragin and another in Little Village,sell to local restaurants and small markets as well as to large chains such as Jewel and Dominick's.

But this is only one business in a thriving and little known part of Chicago's economy. The 32 blocks composing the Little Village business corridor along 26th Street is home to close to 900 businesses, including 75 restaurants, eight supermarkets, seven Mexican bakeries and a tortilla factory.

This corridor is also the second-largest source of tax revenue in Chicago, after the Magnificent Mile, bringing in $980 million a year, according to Luis Alba of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce.

Alba said many of these businesses are passed on for generations and have existed for decades.

La Baguette Mexican bakery at 2109 S. Ashland Ave. is another example.

Here are more than 80 types of pastry breads and cookies; custards, rice pudding, gelatins; and cake slices. The diverse pastry breads are a feast for the palate and for the eyes.

A hand-sized pastry bread costs 60 cents -- much less than the equivalent at a well-known coffee-shop chain. Gilberto Chavarria, a third-generation baker, arrived from Mexico City 13 years ago and opened his first bakery. He now owns 13 La Baguette panaderias, or bakeries, and a factory in Cicero that serves clients as far-flung as New York.

Ketty Lechuga, 37, has been runningChavarria's bakeries for 12 years and said that they have customers who come in every day to buy pastry breads and rolls.

She added that clients drive long distances to get their bread here because they say it's better than anywhere else.

"We believe in freshness and no preservatives", she said. "We try and preserve our image."

Pilsen and Little Village may be primarily Mexican neighborhoods, but people from all ethnicities purchase their bread at their stores.

Lechuga said that people come because they like the freshness these Mexican panaderias have to offer, one example of the culturally rich and flavorful finds that abound in the areas of Pilsen and Little Village.

Pilsen, like Little Village, has about 900 businesses -- more than 100 restaurants, 15 bakeries, Mexican candy and cheese factories and many more specialty shops.