0:00

Did you know that street vending in Mexico

0:02

has pre Columbian roots and primarily took

0:04

place in market places or

0:06

tiangis. So everything from ceramic

0:09

cookware, cacao, vanilla,

0:11

eggs, clothes, all of it was sold,

0:14

and one of the most popular items

0:16

was tacos.

0:17

In today's episode, we explore the history

0:19

of fucos and street vending. My

0:24

name is Eva Longoria and I am

0:26

My.

0:27

De Gomez Racon and welcome to

0:29

Hungry for History, a

0:32

podcast that explores our past and present

0:34

through food.

0:35

On every episode, we'll talk about the history of

0:37

some of our favorite dishes, ingredients,

0:39

and beverages.

0:40

So make yourself at home.

0:42

Ewen Britchell.

0:48

So they weren't always called tacos.

0:50

I thought fuckos were always called tacos.

0:52

No, they weren't always called tacos. So

0:55

the concept of a taco has existed

0:58

for hundreds, maybe thousands of years,

1:00

but its exact origins are unknown.

1:03

Some say that the mere act of rolling

1:06

food in adrtilla makes

1:08

it a taco, but the word

1:11

bacco is actually relatively

1:14

new.

1:15

So where did the taco originate?

1:16

Like?

1:16

Where does the word come from?

1:18

So, according to food historian Jeffrey

1:21

Pilcher. He wrote a book called Planet Taco,

1:23

a Global History of Mexican Food. He

1:25

suggests that the word facco dates

1:28

to the nineteenth century and it first

1:30

appears in the real Academiespaniola.

1:32

The Official Dictionary of the Spanish language,

1:35

defined as a little like a peg

1:37

or a plug. Another theory

1:39

is that the word taco comes from the naulalco,

1:43

meaning half, because the ingredients

1:45

are put in a taco in the center of a dortilla,

1:47

which is then folded in half.

1:50

That makes more sense to me the no wadal word.

1:52

It could be that glaco I mean that sounds

1:55

I mean claco, sounds like taco,

1:57

and it means half.

1:58

But the other thing is that those those

2:00

little pegs or plugs. Miners

2:03

in Mexico used to put these little

2:05

pegs with dynamite inside

2:08

or with gunpowder inside. They would roll them and

2:10

they would put them in the mines.

2:12

They're basically little sticks of dynamite.

2:15

So those were called tacos. So this

2:17

whole idea, and some of the first you know, written

2:19

recordings of facco were thatcos e minero

2:22

minors tacos, So it was sort

2:24

of like this little bit of dynamite that

2:26

you're eating. So

2:29

so that that's why there are those

2:31

two different theories. But the word itself

2:33

dates to the nineteenth century, so it's not that

2:36

old.

2:37

Yeah, because because there's writings of

2:39

Spanish conquistadores like Bernaldiez

2:41

del Castillo who mentions warm corn

2:44

tortillas on mochte Zuma's

2:46

table. So you know, it was

2:48

discussed and that the tortillas

2:50

were used as sort of a spoon. But that technique

2:53

of using like tortillas

2:55

as a spoon, that's also in like I said, in

2:57

India, where they use the non

2:59

as a spoon. I mean, there's a lot of cultures

3:02

that use a piece of something as

3:04

a spoon, exactly. Exactly.

3:06

Every culture has something, right, and

3:08

every culture has something that you you

3:10

know, every street food, it's sort

3:13

of things that you eat with your hands as

3:15

well. But some can say that a taco,

3:18

you know, that the soul of the taco is

3:20

the corn trtilla or the tortillya.

3:22

But the original tortillya, the original

3:25

taco would have been with corn.

3:27

Yeah. And then so in the early nineteenth

3:29

century, a lot of people

3:31

began migrating to Mexico City, you

3:34

know, for opportunities or region

3:36

bringing their regional cooking skills with them. But every

3:39

region obviously has different foods. In Mexico

3:41

City became a melting pot

3:43

of tacos. And I've experienced this because

3:46

there's a taco a mercado on

3:48

Saturdays near our house in Mexico

3:50

City, and you have Mitua tacos

3:53

from Mitua Kan that goes the Yucatan

3:56

that goes it. Like there's all these different stalls

3:59

and every region is so different.

4:02

That is what's so interesting I feel about Mexico

4:04

City is that that it's such a melting

4:06

pot of cuisines

4:09

from the entire country.

4:11

And this is where I mean you could say that the

4:13

original tacco culture is

4:16

in these markets like the one that you're mentioning.

4:18

You know today one of the most famous

4:21

pre colonial Tiangeese is this marketplace

4:24

of laate Logo that was in you

4:26

know, modern day sort of

4:28

downtown Mexico City. But these danges

4:30

are are all over, like you have one

4:32

by your house in Mexico City. So this

4:35

is this this culture of street

4:37

food, this culture of street food from all

4:39

over the country has existed since

4:42

the nineteenth century.

4:44

D'angi means what is that nawadl as

4:46

well Tiangi.

4:47

Yes, the word Tangeese comes

4:49

from the Nawall word getsli,

4:53

two words from the now ill word Gangetzli, which

4:55

means open air market and the amiki,

4:58

which means to sell or trained.

5:01

So the most important markets

5:03

pre colonial market was the one that's like and

5:07

you could say that they

5:09

are modern day flea markets

5:12

or modern day boigas, modern day you know where

5:14

you people come and sell everything

5:17

from food to clothes to

5:20

cook wear, everything that you could possibly find.

5:22

But that was really the soul

5:25

of Mexico, when everybody would come together

5:27

and buy what they needed. One

5:37

could argue that the Pinata District in downtown

5:40

Los Angeles is a modern day tianges.

5:50

Yeah, I've been there and I love it, and I'm so excited

5:52

because Hungary for History got a chance to talk to one

5:54

of these vendors in the Pinnata

5:56

district. Her name is Mercell Sanchez.

6:00

Numbers Sanchez, so evenlante.

6:03

She is not only a businesswoman, but she's also an

6:05

activist. She's originally

6:07

from the city of Buebla in Mexico.

6:10

And she's been working

6:12

at the Pinatta District for about eighteen years.

6:17

Mendo

6:19

and she sells everything from baby clothes,

6:23

artistsan bags from Puebla. She

6:25

sells Mexican candies, She sells

6:27

hot dogs and chi la las

6:29

mole esquitoes, and she has

6:31

the most amazing faccos dorados.

6:34

She has chicken ones and potato ones.

6:36

I have the tacos Papa Crispy,

6:40

just she's frying them right there with

6:42

his green salsa, like raw

6:45

fresh, bright green salsa and a

6:47

little bit of caeso fresco.

6:49

Oh my god.

6:51

Even this

6:54

topic of street vendors is so relevant

6:56

today because so many food

6:59

venders are getting her arab by

7:01

the cops, by community.

7:07

And one of the main reasons she

7:10

got into activism was because she witnessed

7:12

food vendors getting harassed by the

7:15

cops and she saw their food

7:17

get thrown out, items that they had for

7:19

sale get confiscated.

7:20

Yados,

7:23

Yovia madress Alter.

7:25

She said she even witnessed people getting deported, like

7:27

single mothers crying after having their

7:29

shops destroyed.

7:31

Yeah, it's really really devastating it

7:33

and she was sort of seeing this

7:35

happening around her, seeing it happening,

7:37

you know, to her as well, just being

7:40

harassed for for just trying to make a living.

7:43

So she told us that she started

7:45

asking questions like what what can I do?

7:47

Like what can be done?

7:49

On a who

7:54

you that?

7:54

And a friend of her told her about an organization

7:56

that was trying to help them, and

7:59

that's when she found out about eLAC, which is

8:01

the East LA Community Corporation

8:04

based in Boyle Heights and East LA.

8:06

Yeah like communis poso misikos

8:09

oh.

8:09

Yes, So with the help of others, she started

8:11

organizing and she made a promise to herself.

8:13

She said, I don't care if this takes me twenty years,

8:16

I'm going to do it. Her husband even told

8:18

her, like, who's going to listen? You're just wasting

8:20

your time, and she told him, at least I'll have

8:22

my head held high knowing

8:25

I did something because people don't know how

8:27

much we are suffering.

8:29

Latona.

8:29

Sure, it's really incredible, and you

8:31

know, her hard work paid off. It

8:34

took ten years. It didn't take the twenty years,

8:36

but it took ten years, and in twenty

8:38

eighteen, the state passed a law

8:41

legalizing sidewalk theings.

8:42

Well because of her hard work got Bravo

8:45

to her.

8:45

Yes, she's incredible. Thanks to her hard

8:48

work and she was organizing

8:50

people. When she went to that first meeting at

8:53

eLAC there were seven street vendors, and

8:55

she realized, there's no way that we're going to make a

8:57

dent if it's just seven of us. So

8:59

she was going from vendor to vendor

9:02

to vendor, spreading the word. It's

9:04

like you do you know when it's time to vote.

9:06

She was going to every until she had

9:08

hundreds of vendors. They went to Sacramento

9:11

and I mean they got these lost past.

9:13

Wow. Well, if y'all are in Los Angeles,

9:15

make sure to check her out in

9:17

the Pignata district. It's called Sammy's

9:19

e Lomas. Stop by

9:22

and try that.

9:32

Don't go anywhere. We get into the history of street

9:34

vending in LA and the modern day struggle

9:36

this community is facing.

9:45

So winded street vending in Los

9:47

Angeles begin it must have been I mean, this

9:50

must have been so long ago.

9:52

It was so the city of La was

9:54

established in seventeen eighty one, so

9:58

long ago, but not that long

10:00

ago. But so Mexico lost

10:03

California in eighteen forty

10:05

eight in the Mexican American War.

10:06

The entire Southwest California, Arizona,

10:09

New Mexico, Nevada utahs.

10:11

Yea six yes, yeah.

10:14

So by eighteen fifty, California

10:17

was part of the US, but La was

10:19

only seventy years old at the time,

10:22

so it went from being this little Mexican

10:24

pueblo to a

10:26

city with an Anglo majority

10:29

in very short period of

10:31

time. In his book Los

10:34

Angeles Street Food History From Tamaledos

10:36

to Taco Trucks by Farley Elliott,

10:38

he says that the first signs of street food in La

10:41

emerge after eighteen seventy six,

10:44

when the Southern Pacific Railroad linked

10:46

the city to the rest of the US and the city

10:48

really began to come to life.

10:51

So we start seeing them male vendors,

10:54

so not necessarily bacco vendors,

10:57

but we start seeing that male vendors selling from

10:59

cart from the little wagons in

11:02

what is now downtown Los

11:04

Angeles.

11:05

Well, and it's so interesting like at

11:07

this time, like by the eighteen nineties,

11:10

there was already the city government was already

11:12

trying to sanction or

11:14

severely limit and curb theamal

11:17

vendors, Chinese food vendors.

11:19

They were really restricting them from

11:21

being able to sell or banishing it all together,

11:24

which obviously was reflected a

11:26

larger issue of discrimination towards Mexican,

11:28

Mexican, American, Chinese any other, right,

11:31

any other. So there was a lot of early

11:33

efforts to regulate street food, and

11:35

by the turn of the century, the city forced the

11:38

model cart owners to pay for operating

11:40

licenses as a way to like

11:42

weed them out. And this

11:44

only helped destigmatize the market

11:47

for tamalies, but it didn't slow it down, Like

11:49

Mexican food was just too popular. They

11:51

were like, people wanted their tamals.

11:53

Yeah, people wanted their tamalis. People wanted

11:55

the really good food. It was just, you.

11:58

Know, it was it was all about discriminating

12:01

them. So in nineteen

12:03

ten, these segregation laws

12:05

between white and non white vendors

12:07

limited the presence of Mexican and Chinese vendors

12:10

in downtown LA. So

12:12

they continue to thrive outside

12:15

of the downtown area. But over

12:17

time we start seeing these you know, sit down

12:19

restaurants, and these sit down restaurants would

12:22

further marginalized street

12:24

vendors. But with each new wave

12:26

of immigrants came a new wave

12:29

of street vending, you know, rebirth

12:32

of street vends.

12:32

Well, specifically the wave of Mexicans,

12:35

you know, by the nineteen twenties that migrated

12:37

to the US during the years, obviously

12:40

the Mexican Revolution having a big part

12:42

of that, but the tradition of like street

12:44

bending is one that travels with them,

12:46

and so we start seeing more

12:48

than theamalies by this time, we start seeing

12:51

the buckles, and you know that they were all

12:53

the rage in La, but like you see a lot

12:55

of vendors. I the first time I

12:57

moved to La. My greatest

13:00

memories Olvetta Street. I love

13:02

Olivetta Street. I went to a festival down

13:04

there and I was like, what is this place? And

13:07

Olvetta Street is one of the oldest streets,

13:11

opened in nineteen thirty and there's

13:14

so much history down there

13:17

to who could own the stalls.

13:19

And if you look at Olvetta Street,

13:22

you'll see it's an alley and

13:24

the storefronts are on the other side. And

13:26

what happened was Mexicans weren't allowed

13:29

to own a storefront in the nineteen thirties,

13:31

so they could sell in the back in the

13:33

alley, but they couldn't have a storefront,

13:35

and the alley became more popular than

13:38

the storefront. And that's how old Vetta

13:40

Street became an

13:42

icon and really a heritage

13:45

site of Los Angeles. It's protected,

13:47

it's celebrated now. So

13:50

it's a very I love Oletta Street. If you guys

13:53

have a chance, go check it out.

13:54

It's a very cool, very very cool

13:57

place. I love it too. In

14:01

her book, in the book Food, Health and Culture

14:03

in Latino, Los Angeles by professor

14:06

of LATINX Food Studies Sarah Portnoy,

14:09

she says that in the mid nineteen thirties,

14:11

Los Angeles band vending on sidewalks

14:14

downtown and then in major business districts,

14:17

and she goes on to say that these actions

14:20

restricted sidewalk activity and

14:22

made sidewalk vending more challenging.

14:25

During the course of the twentieth century, then La

14:27

became a car city. Pedestrians

14:30

and vendors were pushed off the sidewalks,

14:33

and the streets lost this former

14:36

vibrancy and commerce.

14:38

So this c LA's

14:40

a driving city. Like we're

14:43

not New York, We're not in York. No,

14:45

it's not a pedestrian city at all. And it's so

14:48

sad.

14:49

And so this hostility towards street

14:51

vendors grew and persisted

14:54

for decades.

14:56

Yeah, well, you know, it's so funny because you know, if

14:58

you have ever flown into lax there's

15:00

a Tom Bradley terminal and

15:02

it's the international terminal. And I've

15:05

always like, oh, why is the name Tom Bradley, Like I didn't

15:07

really understand why they were like, no, he was

15:09

a really good mayor and in the seventies,

15:12

the La City Council voted to

15:14

ban sidewalk vending throughout

15:17

the city. But it was Tom Bradley who was the

15:19

mayor that vetoed the ordinance

15:22

because he knew it would affect poor people and

15:24

he thought it was really important to encourage

15:26

creating small businesses and

15:29

you know, giving poor people some economic

15:31

mobility. I mean. Despite

15:33

this, sidewalk vending was officially made

15:35

illegal in nineteen eighty and at

15:37

the time, you know, street food was banned. But

15:40

then there was a spike in migration and a demand

15:42

for this cultural food again

15:45

by this wave of new immigrants, and so a

15:47

lot of times vendors were seen as criminals

15:49

and a lot were arrested and beaten and served

15:52

jail time. The ban basically

15:55

turned vending into this political issue,

15:57

and it motivated street vendors to

15:59

organize himself, and so a

16:01

lot of I mean, I think a lot of organizations

16:03

were formed. But in

16:06

nineteen eighty seven they began meeting

16:08

and they established the Association

16:11

of Street Vendors AVA A Soires

16:14

Ambulantes. It turned into a political issue

16:16

because street vending really bumps up against

16:19

immigration policies, police harassment,

16:21

human rights issues, and so in

16:24

nineteen ninety four, the Special

16:26

Sidewalk Vending District Ordinance

16:30

was enacted to allow selling

16:32

in eight areas

16:34

of Los Angeles as part of this like pilot

16:37

program. Even though they

16:39

did this, there were still like continuous harassment

16:42

by the LAPD, and you

16:44

know, so the vendors continued to protest,

16:46

and you know, a lot of this still continues

16:49

today.

16:50

This pilot program was in the nineties. Right

16:52

in between twenty ten and

16:54

twenty nineteen, police arrested over

16:56

forty three thousand people for

16:59

legal sidewalk But

17:01

there's an estimated ten to twelve

17:03

thousand street food vendors in

17:05

LA selling everything from bacon wrap

17:07

hot dogs, take seti yas to thut

17:09

galls fruit all over

17:12

Los Angeles, you know, and you wonder, like

17:14

why do they continue to do this despite

17:17

risking fines, police harassment,

17:19

even imprisonment. Most of them are documented

17:22

and have very few employment

17:25

alternatives, and they need to provide

17:27

for their family in street vending offers

17:29

them this economic

17:32

mobility. I mean, they are these incredible

17:35

entrepreneurs. I mean, they do so

17:37

much.

17:37

I mean, and street vending is technically legal

17:40

in Los Angeles now, but all the vendors

17:43

say the permit is so

17:45

out of reach because it's either too expensive,

17:48

you know, the process to get one

17:50

is super deterearing from

17:52

getting one, and so they still

17:55

have a lot of a lot of challenges

17:57

and I think, you know, operating

18:00

without a permit is

18:02

sometimes the only option because

18:05

they have to make a living.

18:06

LA City Council approved a measure to decriminalize

18:09

street vending, So that was twenty eighteen,

18:11

and this was with the Safe Sidewalk

18:13

Vending Act called SB ninety

18:16

six. And then in twenty

18:18

twenty two, s B nine

18:20

seventy two was passed, and

18:22

this attempted, you know, to

18:25

facilitate greater access to food vendors.

18:27

But like you said, some

18:29

of these permits are just impossible.

18:44

Hungary. First, we got a chance to talk to the executive

18:46

Director of Inclusion Action, Rudy

18:48

Aspinosa, to talk to us about what

18:50

his organization is doing to support the street

18:53

vendor movement.

18:59

Tell us who you are and

19:01

how your organization helps support

19:04

the street vendor movement in Los Angeles.

19:07

Sure, my name is Rudy. I

19:09

serve as the executive director of Inclusive Action

19:12

for the city. Inclusive Action

19:14

is an economic justice organization that

19:16

really focuses on getting

19:19

capital into the hands of people that haven't

19:21

had it before. We're a certified

19:24

financial institution. We're a community development

19:26

financial institution. So a big piece of the

19:28

work that we do is we provide micro loans and business

19:30

coaching to entrepreneurs that include street

19:32

vendors but also breaking mortar businesses. And

19:34

we also have a division to focus on policy

19:37

advocacy, and

19:38

we prioritize that because

19:41

we know to reach economic justice, we have

19:43

to address the systems that have caused

19:46

income inequality in our city and in our country,

19:49

and so as part of that advocacy

19:51

work, one of the campaigns we've worked on over the

19:53

last decade is the effort

19:55

to leadalized stream vending. We're one

19:57

of the co founders of the La Street Vendor campaign

20:00

in the most recent California Street Vendor

20:02

campaign.

20:03

What is happening right now within the

20:05

street vendors or among the street vendors

20:07

that you think people should be most

20:09

aware of.

20:10

I think that people should know that

20:13

street vendors have been struggling for

20:15

many, many years, decades even to

20:17

be included formally in

20:19

our economy. This has been even beyond

20:22

our work. There's been many people in other generations

20:24

that have worked on trying to legalize street ending in

20:27

Los Angeles. And what I want people to know

20:29

is that there's a history here that's

20:31

beyond many of us, and

20:33

I want folks to know that in the last few

20:35

years that there have been great

20:37

strides forward due to the work

20:39

of the coalition and street vendor leaders

20:42

in our city. Starting

20:45

in twenty sixteen, we began to

20:47

pass policies in Los Angeles and in

20:49

California that have created

20:51

pathways for street vendors to finally get

20:53

permits. In twenty eighteen,

20:56

Senate Bill nine forty six pass that was championed

20:58

by then Senator Ricarolata, decriminalized

21:00

sidewalk meaning throughout the state of California

21:03

and ask cities to create systems

21:05

for sidewalk vendors. And in this past

21:07

year, we passed Senate BIL nineteen seventy two with Center

21:10

Arena Gonzalez, they change

21:12

the retail food Code to support

21:14

street food vendors that we're having a hard

21:16

time getting public health permits. So people

21:18

should know that there's these new laws in place that

21:22

the entire state of California is getting adjusted

21:24

to, and so folks should

21:26

be optimistic, but we also should

21:28

be really vigilant because just because

21:30

we pass this laws doesn't mean that everything's

21:33

amazing now. Now our focus is

21:35

really about making sure these laws are implemented

21:37

properly. And so we just

21:39

have this big passage this past year for street

21:41

food vendors, but the county health

21:43

departments throughout the state of California and cities

21:46

have to learn what this law is about and how

21:48

to implement it properly. And so that's the work.

21:50

The work continues on for all advocates,

21:53

is to make sure that we're holding

21:55

our cities accountable to these

21:57

new regulations.

22:07

So what can one do to help you?

22:09

You're hosting a podcast, and I think we need

22:12

people like you that are elevating stories. We

22:14

need people that are designers that are thinking differently

22:17

about how we design our cities and how do we design

22:19

virtual environments for people

22:22

to tell stories. We need activists, we need

22:24

community organizers, we need lawmakers.

22:26

So my ask to friends that say that

22:28

they want to get involved is to consider what is

22:30

your gift and what's your skill and

22:33

how can you contribute that skill

22:35

to a coalition. And so once

22:37

you identify how you want to help, I

22:40

would say, get plugged in. There's a

22:42

lot of amazing activists out here in organizations

22:44

that are doing really great work. If

22:46

you're interested in microfinance, you have inclusive

22:49

Action. If you're interested in community organizing,

22:51

you have organizations like Community Power Collective

22:53

and Cheat Lab that are focused on immigr rights.

22:56

If you're a lawyer, we work

22:58

with an amazing team of public Health so to provide

23:00

free legal services to street vendors and other businesses.

23:03

And so there's there's so many ways to get plugged

23:05

in. And so what I tell people is

23:08

like find your skill and then think

23:10

about who are to try

23:12

to learn about the organizations that are already doing

23:14

work and just you know, you

23:16

know, get get involved with them. They need your.

23:17

Help buying from them as well,

23:20

just on that scale. But

23:22

then also and.

23:23

Tip them and tip them, yeah, totally and

23:26

tip them, and I think, you

23:28

know, the one third thing

23:30

that I want to tell folks that are listening

23:32

is the role of our lawmakers. Our

23:35

lawmakers are dealing with the variety of priorities

23:37

and maybe in competing priorities. Here in LA we

23:39

have a huge housing crisis, for example, and homelessness

23:42

is a huge priority for all of us, or it should be. And

23:45

I think that if somebody cares about street

23:47

vendors or small businesses or food entrepreneurs,

23:50

we have to make sure those lawmakers hear from us,

23:53

and they often probably they

23:55

probably don't. So the

23:57

more that any constituent

23:59

call their local city council

24:02

member or their state senator their assembly and says,

24:04

hey, this is where I live. You

24:06

represent me. I'm really concerned about

24:08

the street vendor on the corner here, and

24:10

I want to make sure that they have what they

24:12

need. What are you doing about that? Once

24:14

we ask questions to our elected leaders, it

24:17

plans to seed in their mind that they need to work

24:19

on that. And unfortunately,

24:21

in the early days of the campaign, when

24:24

we were asking leaders to step up,

24:26

they would say, nobody's complaining about

24:28

this, so why should I prioritize this.

24:31

Nobody's saying anything about street vendors. And

24:34

so the more we call and

24:36

engage, the better. There's a lot of amazing

24:38

folks on social media now that are showing telling

24:41

stories or covering the harassment

24:43

the vendors are facing. Those are all things that contribute

24:45

to lawmakers paying attention.

24:56

If there was one word to describe

24:59

the people that were a street vendors, what

25:01

would that.

25:01

Word to be. I'm

25:03

sorry, I'm kind of pausing because I'm a little bit I'm

25:06

a little sort of moved

25:08

by the question. I'm thinking

25:10

about an entrepreneur that I just got a Slack

25:12

conment for my colleague. My colleague about

25:17

my word is visionary.

25:19

And the comment that I got

25:22

in our organizational chat is one of our

25:24

borrowers who had a

25:26

mobile was a mobile vendor. They

25:29

came to us years ago and they

25:31

were like barely breaking even.

25:33

With their business, and

25:36

they applied for a loan

25:39

and they wanted to basically buy

25:41

out the loan that they had on their little hitch truck,

25:43

on a little trailer that was connected to the pickup

25:45

truck.

25:46

And they were, you know, trying to figure it out. They're

25:48

like, we work hard, and like I were cooking

25:50

for people and I'm just not making it work. And so

25:53

I just got a note of like, how well they're

25:56

doing now. It's like three or four years later

25:58

and they sold that that mobile facility,

26:01

and I think that they're opening up a brick and mortar now

26:03

and it's like they're doing well.

26:07

And I think the entrepreneurs

26:09

in our city, in our communities

26:11

are visionary people that

26:14

in the face of so many obstacles for their family,

26:17

they're saying, I'm not going to give up. I'm

26:19

still going to get out here. I'm going to be on the public right away

26:21

on the sidewalk. That's scary to put yourself

26:23

out there, think about the vulnerability that's required.

26:26

And they're saying, I'm going to continue to struggle

26:29

because I see I envision something

26:31

better, and man,

26:34

how can we not support them?

26:35

You know?

26:36

Is what I think. So visionary is

26:38

my word for them.

26:39

That is beautiful. Thank you so much, Rudy.

26:48

Don't go anywhere, hungry for history will be

26:50

right back. So

27:04

I think this is a dumb question. When did tacos

27:06

become popular in LA because I feel

27:08

like in the founding of LA

27:10

it must be in the constitution.

27:12

Now well by the

27:15

thirties, the tacos were

27:17

you know, it's just the wave of immigrants

27:19

from Mexico that we're bringing their

27:22

foods with them. And by the nineteen thirties

27:24

that goes, we're super popular in

27:26

Los Angeles, from trucks

27:28

to sidewalk set up.

27:30

And it's funny, yeah, it's funny that you say trucks

27:32

because you know, the taco truck is like the famous

27:34

thing. Actually, food trucks in general were

27:36

birthed out of street vendors, right,

27:39

and so you gourmet these

27:41

gourmet food

27:44

trucks now and it's

27:46

almost a bit of a gentrification, right

27:49

of any migrant food

27:51

because all most of the street vendors

27:54

is immigrant food. And

27:56

now you have, you know, these

27:59

very popular food trucks and food truck

28:01

festivals, right, like I mean, and these

28:03

these trucks are like decked out and

28:06

for some reason that's okay, right,

28:08

that's accepted, that's supplotted

28:11

and embraced. But you know, if

28:13

you look at sidewalk setups, it's like.

28:16

Yeah, they don't have the trucks don't have

28:18

the stigma, you know, because they

28:20

were the original the

28:23

Loncetas. They were the

28:25

damal vendor from the turn of the century

28:28

became the loncera and

28:31

you would see them parked. You

28:34

still see them sort of when they were construction

28:36

workers, so they're parked outside.

28:38

You still have the.

28:39

Ones that are not all you know, made

28:41

for hipsters, that are for Mexican

28:43

Mexicican American construction workers,

28:46

so you still see them, but now

28:49

there are so many. I think it started

28:52

I would say, what like around two thousand and seven

28:54

or eight with the with the Kim

28:57

Chica set, yeahs Roy Troy, the

28:59

Koji truck. And then with

29:01

the rise of social media, places

29:04

like East Los Angeles starting

29:06

to become gentrified, like you said so,

29:09

and then with social media you have the truck

29:11

saying I'm going to be here, I'm going to be there. So it

29:13

kind of went hand in hand. And now the

29:15

food trucks they still face a struggle,

29:18

not as much as the street vendors,

29:20

but now they're they're super hip. I mean the

29:22

Mariscos Carliscos, which is one

29:24

of my favorite trucks in the city, food

29:27

trucks in the city. The late Jonathan

29:29

Gold featured them in the list of one hundred and one

29:31

best restaurants in La It's a truck and

29:33

it's not a hipster truck. It's just a really

29:35

good truck. They have the best trimp tacos in the city.

29:38

What's your favorite kind of taco?

29:40

Oh my, I love tacosaso.

29:43

I think I have me too,

29:45

I do. Oh God, I'm a big

29:47

Tacos al Pastor fan. You know why

29:49

because they're the most similar to

29:52

Mexico, like the

29:55

Mexico City tacos that I have, Tacos

29:58

Pastor. I can have them in East and

30:00

it's pretty much the same.

30:02

Mmm.

30:03

They're consistent across borders.

30:05

They're so good.

30:06

There's a truck called There are two

30:08

places where I get my tacos at Pasta Fixed

30:11

in La Leos Tacos they're.

30:13

All over yeah yeah.

30:14

And then there's one I don't know what it's called, but

30:16

it's across the street from Lows on Pico

30:18

Boulevard with just

30:20

the pineapple and lime juice and some radish.

30:24

That's my Yeah. I like for taco. I

30:27

like the pineapple, onions and cilantro. So

30:29

what is for you? What's the soul of the taco, the

30:31

tortilla or the filling? What

30:34

I'm the it's the filling, the tortilla

30:37

is the same.

30:38

No, because if you don't have a really good tortilla,

30:40

then like if you take you pick

30:42

up the taco and the falls apart.

30:44

You're right, You're right, You're right, You're right. Yeah,

30:46

you've ruined the experience, right Yeah.

30:49

Yeah. Also, also you're right because

30:51

my chicken tacos pepped loves because

30:54

mine are America American eyed, because

30:57

mine's not the taco bell taco, but

31:00

it's not the just heat

31:02

the tortilla, the corn tortilla up, I

31:04

fry the corn tortilla. So it's I had

31:07

to be taco when I wasn't.

31:09

When I met you in Spain, you made them. They were

31:11

incredible.

31:12

Yeah, it's crying of the tortilla.

31:15

So you're right. I actually have to agree

31:17

with you. Tortillas pretty I think it's fifty to fifty then,

31:19

but I actually think it's I think it's thirty three thirty

31:21

three thirty three because this alsa makes a big difference.

31:24

To the sasa makes a huge difference,

31:26

and the fresh lime juice. I feel like I can't

31:28

have a taco without squeezing some lime on it.

31:30

Yeah. Well, if anybody has

31:33

seen my searching for Mexico, Mexico

31:35

City episode. We did a taco

31:37

tour in Mexico City and

31:40

they're so like you said, Mexico City is really

31:42

the melting pot of all the tacos of the country.

31:45

And I went with the taco blogger

31:48

and it was like she knew exactly

31:50

where to go. The guy that's there that

31:52

makes the the sweating tacos, what.

31:54

Is it.

31:56

Cansta? Yes, yes,

31:59

which was I've never had

32:01

one, never had one either,

32:04

And he had three different ones and they

32:06

were hot and warm, and

32:08

he'd been there all morning and he brought

32:11

this all this stuff from his house and I'm like, surely

32:13

this is going to be like eh, because you

32:15

know it's two hours old or whatever. Nope,

32:18

it was. They were still warm, warm and

32:20

delicious, and he had these different salsas

32:22

and oh, man, do you know that.

32:25

One of the earliest photographs of a taco

32:27

from ne Thean nineteen twenties is a woman

32:30

selling those tacos a canasta.

32:32

So basically, they put the tacos

32:35

in a basket and then cover it

32:37

with like some sort of plastic and they

32:39

know they with towels and they

32:41

don't get soggy.

32:43

They're super soft. And that's why it's

32:45

a good tortilla because it doesn't fall apart. We

32:52

hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I

32:54

know I did. I'm actually super hungry now. I think

32:57

I'm going to make myself some chicken tacos.

32:59

Thank you, Thank you all for listening.

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