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A fifth-grade teacher in the Austin district told his students at the start of last school year that he would need to miss a day for an errand. Roberto López Falcón never made it back to those students, spending nearly 300 days in ICE detention before being released.
There’s plenty of ways to have some THC in Texas, including a surge of canned beverages, but what are the benefits to a canned high? And how much demand is there for these products?
We’re got an excerpt from the latest episode of the “Black Austin Matters” podcast.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] A fifth grade teacher in the Austin district told his students at the start of last school year that he would need to miss a day for an errand. He never made it back to those students, spending nearly 300 days in ICE detention before being released. We’ve got more about his story and how he used his time to plan for future students. And there’s plenty of ways to have some THC in Texas, including a surge of canned beverages. But what are the benefits to a canned high, and how much demand is there for these sort of products? We’ve got more about those stories coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:38] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:43] Plus, Eric Byrd is a native Austinite and civic strategist who says brilliance can be found in the places we least expect. He spoke with the hosts of the Black Austin Matters podcast. His story, up next, right here on Austin Signal. Thank you. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Kikano. It is Tuesday, July 21st. We’re glad to have ya. The Austin Independent School District is ending its partnership with a non-profit charge with turning around three struggling schools. That partnership was made to avoid a potential fifth failing accountability rating at Burnett, Doby, or Webb middle schools that could trigger a state takeover of the district. AISD partnered with Texas Council for International Studies to manage the schools, but The plan hit a bump in May when the Texas Education Agency rejected the plan. AISD says a district-led turnaround plan that began in 2025 has already shown improvements at these schools. We have more about this story at KUT.org and on the KUT app. An Austin ISD teacher who told his students he needed to miss one day of school for an errand never returned to his students or that classroom. Instead, his routine check-in with immigration officials turned into nearly 300 days of tension. The story of how he focused on his students and teachings to get him through those detention days is captured in the latest story from Emiliano Tawi-Gomez. He is a freelance writer who covered this story for the Austin Current, and he is with us now. Emiliano, welcome back to the show. Thank you for having me, Jared. So tell us first about Roberto Lopez Falcón. Who is he?
Emiliano Tahuil-Gomez [00:02:24] Where did he teach? Yeah, Mr. López Falcón was a grade school, fifth grade teacher here in Austin, in northeast Austin at Hart Elementary School, who taught a bilingual fifth grade classroom there at the school.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:39] Okay, and how long has he been here in the Austin area?
Emiliano Tahuil-Gomez [00:02:41] He first came to the U.S. In 2022, claimed asylum, he’s a Cuban immigrant, said that he had clashed with his superiors as a teacher in Cuba. Gets to Austin, and then last, so not this most recent school year, but the school year before then had been his first school year as a full-time teacher, right? He was a well-liked teacher from The Sound of it. I mean, I’ve spoken to families and they tell me, I mean he had a reputation for a teacher you want it.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:08] Yeah, that’s pretty impressive, especially for just being there the the one year alone, so take us back to this most recent school year that just passed a few weeks in he tells the students that he’s going to be gone for a day why.
Emiliano Tahuil-Gomez [00:03:20] I mean, so Mr. Elvis Falcon was, at the time, several years into his asylum case, right? Which in the United States can take many, many years. He had a check-in, right, which I’m not sure how much you remember, but last year, especially last summer, was really when we started noticing that a lot of immigrants from here in the Austin area were going down to San Antonio, going to check-ins to show the ICE officers, look, I’m still here. I’m still planning on showing up to my court dates, you know, it was considered very routine. At the time, yes. At the times, right? And then little by little, I think, detentions at those check-ins grew quite a bit. And Lopez Falcón, who had, was very much keeping up with his case, thought he had a strong case. You know, one day, he tells the students, he goes up to Morgan, he has the substitute, be well, just be gone for a day, just have to run an errand all the way back the next day, and he wasn’t, right. And so that really kind of begins this question, right, for many of the students who continue to tell their parents day after day, you know, our teacher’s not back, what’s wrong. Basically, the kids believe that he was sick, because this is what they were hearing from the other staff, the other educators at the school, right? And that was what was being told to the students, that’s what was was being fed to the parents. I think, little by little, some of the parents began to ask questions, and that’s why last fall after getting some concerns from some of these parents. I was able to report out the fact that he had been detained by ICE at this check-in and that was news to many.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:46] Yeah, Mr. Lopez Falcón was in detention for nearly 300 days. Tell us a little bit about what his experience was like, at least from what he told you.
Emiliano Tahuil-Gomez [00:04:55] You know, he, from my conversations with him, routine was everything, right? Trying to kind of keep your sanity while you’re in detention for so long and just don’t know, right? It’s an indefinite. It’s not like you know you were sentenced to an amount of time in detention. If you believe that you don’t want to return to your home country, which in his case is Cuba, and you believe you want to fight your case, you don’t t know how long that’s going to take because of the administration’s policy of indefinate mandatory detention, right? You’re going to be detained for as long as you are fighting. This immigration court of view, if we have hold of you, which they did. And so for him, that was reading like crazy. I mean, he could list all the books, all the 30 books he had read while in detention. He told me about working at the library, having told staff there that he was a teacher and he got put to work at the Library.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:41] Yeah, he was far away from his students, but it sounds like his students they were never far away from his mind.
Emiliano Tahuil-Gomez [00:05:46] No, they weren’t. You know, I asked him, you know, how do you kind of keep a sense of hope, right? And he talked about his wife and his daughter in Cuba, but he also very much, and actually, I should preface this, I mean, I interviewed him after he got out, but I also interviewed him while he was in and had no idea when he was going to get out. And that’s when he told me, you, he’s like, you to kind of, keep my mind straight, I just think of lessons plans and I think of how I could teach. And this is a man who’s been a teacher his whole who very much wants to be a teacher who gets… Purpose from that, right? He would tell me how he was thinking through math problems and how he wanted to teach those math problems. And I was talking to him, I didn’t know if he was going to get out or when he was gonna get out is probably the better thing and neither did he. How eventually did Mr. Lopez Falcon?
Jerry Quijano [00:06:27] How did he get released eventually?
Emiliano Tahuil-Gomez [00:06:29] Yeah, Mr. Lopez Falcón had been fighting an asylum case, right, as I mentioned, saying that he feared political repercussions from returning back to his native Cuba. So his asylum case gets denied. He appeals that, but an appeal is indefinite. You are just waiting for the U.S. Government to give you a response, there’s no timeline. His attorney turned to what many immigration attorneys have turned to in the past many months, which are um, habeas corpus orders, which is that you go to a federal judge, right? As opposed to the immigration judge, immigration system. And you say, listen, I think my client is being illegally detained because of the amount of time, because this does not need to happen and, um, secured him actually, uh, an order from a federal. That’s the department of justice and immigration system had to allow him out on bond, but the government’s attorneys were able to find a way around that by saying, we think he’s a flight risk because he’s afraid to return to Cuba. Not going to give him bond. That kept him in there even longer, which is why we got to the almost 300 days. Eventually, they returned to the federal courts. Courts said, you have to let him go. And despite the government not wanting to, they released him.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:37] Okay, so what is Mr. Lopez-Falcón thinking about when it comes to the near-term future? Is he planning to return back to teaching?
Emiliano Tahuil-Gomez [00:07:46] He wants to, he wants to. Because he was detained for so long, he no longer has his spot at Hart Elementary. He has to reapply. I know that’s, he told me that that’s something that he really wants to do is go back to Hart or go back into an Austin school and teach. But yeah, that’s what we’re gonna wait and see is will he be in a classroom next fall.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:05] Well, the last thing I wanted to ask you about, I mean, it’s clear that this has been a traumatic situation for Mr. Lopez Falcón, but your reporting kind of goes into the effects that it had on the communities, particularly his students. You spoke with some of the mothers of students who were in his classroom. How did those students handle his absence?
Emiliano Tahuil-Gomez [00:08:24] Yeah, that was kind of what I was very interested in because as the year went on, and I mean, I had very little answers on Lopez Falcón, just besides the fact that I could look him up and see that he was still detained. And I would reach out to the families a little over time, intermittently, and see that they themselves had no answers and were kind of just guessing. And so this was hard on the children, as you might imagine. I know one mother said her daughter was diagnosed with depression. So it took a strong toll and Students graduated, they walked, and still thinking of Mr. Lopez-Falcón as a teacher. I mean, I spoke to one student who talked to me about that, and yet didn’t get any resolution until just now, and no answers until just now. And so that toll was very heavy on both Lopez- Falcón and his students, and I think that’s what I was interested in.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:08] All right, we have been speaking with Emiliano Tawi-Gomez. We’re gonna have a link to his reporting in today’s show notes. Emiliano, thank you. Thank you for having me. The hemp beverage industry sold more than 2 million cases last year. Texas is one of the largest markets for these sort of drinks with an estimated value in the billions of dollars, but clouding all that growth is the looming threat of bans and restrictions. Texas Standard’s Charlie Sharp visited an industry conference this summer here Austin and spoke to producers about their concerns.
Charlie Sharpe [00:09:48] I’m in the American Canning Machines facility in southeast Austin. Rows of silver drink cans jitter in what looks like a miniature cattle corral. They’re picked out single file, filled with a glittering liquid, sealed and sent for packaging. In this professional, orderly environment, it’s easy to forget what I’m looking at. These are no ordinary drinks. These drinks will get you high. Just north of the canning facility, the Hemp Beverage Expo is underway. Neat rows of corporate chic booths fill the echoey, well-lit space in the Palmer Event Center. Business owners exchange cards and promises to stay in touch. No one here is talking about the munchies.
Jasmine Hupp [00:10:35] We’ve come a long way since Brownie and the Couch Days, and now we have these incredibly accurately dosed, reliable products that you’re going to know how you feel every time you take a shot of Social Potion.
Charlie Sharpe [00:10:48] You may have seen them at the corner store. Neon-colored six-packs promising elevation, buzzes, clarity. But what exactly are hemp beverages? George Jage is the CEO of the company that put on this expo with the Hemp Beverages Alliance.
Geroge Jage [00:11:03] Beverage has never been really big in the cannabis space, but I’ve always believed that if we can change the intoxicant, but not the social lubrication that’s so ingrained in our society of gathering around libations and socializing around beverage, that this is where THC as a molecule and cannabis and hemp combined as a plant, as really nature’s medicine can have a massive transformative effect.
Charlie Sharpe [00:11:28] According to the Hemp Beverage Alliance, hemp beverages are any drink that contains hemp-derived cannabinoids. Those are the chemical substances found in cannabis and other plants. CBD and THC are the most common, but there are hundreds of other so-called minor cannabinodes. Your body even makes its own! Those are called endocannabinoid. As I passed by the stalls of the Expo, I saw opaque purple liquids and turquoise glasses. What looks like energy drinks, tequila, tropical beers, and even wine.
Jasmine Hupp [00:12:02] This is a THC spirit, so similar to any other alcohol spirit. You could shoot it, you could sip it, you can mix it.
Ryan Brooks [00:12:08] This is more like alcohol or tobacco. It’s going right into your bloodstream and you feel it in two to five minutes. For example, for me, almost every single time, it’s two minutes and 37 seconds, two minutes in 40.
Eddie Velez [00:12:19] If you’re not drinking alcohol, it’s another option for you. It’s good for a pre-workout and post-work out recovery.
Charlie Sharpe [00:12:25] That was Jasmine Hupp, Ryan Brooks, and Eddie Velez. Almost all of the business owners and representatives call their products a social lubricant. It’s a nice pair of words. It sounds both poetic and scientific. It’s clear what the category is trying to say, though. You don’t like alcohol? Try us. David Rancio is co-founder of American Canning Machines, that facility I toured earlier.
David Rancio [00:12:52] Frankly, per capita alcohol consumption has actually been flat to slightly down for something like 50 years. You know, what are consumers doing? While they’re drinking less alcohol, that’s sort of obvious. Hemp and cannabis products are growing though, so it stands to reason that they are taking some of that share.
Charlie Sharpe [00:13:10] George Jage, with the group putting on the event, said that generations are moving away from alcohol.
Geroge Jage [00:13:16] They love cannabis, they love psychedelics. The older generations, it’s just a health thing, right? Like they, it is harder, I’m 56 in a week. So if I drink too much the night before, it’s really hard for me to get moving in the morning. So if drink hemp beverages and THC, I have none of that effect.
Charlie Sharpe [00:13:33] The sellers at the expo told me they’re drawing in a diversity of customers.
Jasmine Hupp [00:13:38] Our products appeal to that person that had that kind of weird brownie experience in their youth and was like, no, I can’t do edibles. Everybody, from 21-year-olds who basically said no to alcohol, to grandmothers who are also looking for an alternative.
Eddie Velez [00:14:01] People are drawn to the product right now it’s going to be 45 and older it’s going to the professionals people are looking for more of a balanced life
Charlie Sharpe [00:14:08] It sounds like there’s a drink for everyone, but is it paying off?
Geroge Jage [00:14:12] According to Whitney Economics, the Texas hemp markets have estimated about $5.5 billion.
Charlie Sharpe [00:14:17] David Rancio expects it’s only going to grow from here.
David Rancio [00:14:20] I had probably three or four conversations yesterday with friends in the industry that are kind of in the supply chain side here, be it cans, bottles, raw ingredients in different ways. And on the packaging side specifically, some of these people that were 95% craft beer five years ago are now 50-50 cannabis, everything else, or hemp, everything else.
Charlie Sharpe [00:14:41] But all of these talks of a thriving industry and billions of dollars in revenue happen in the shadow of an imminent threat. Jasmine Hup is a representative with Joy of the Adventure Living, which produces THC mix in powders and spirits.
Jasmine Hupp [00:14:56] Now we’re in trouble. At this point on November 13th, these products aren’t going to exist for anyone.
Charlie Sharpe [00:15:03] Most of the products displayed in the expo are only currently legal because of language in the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp containing less than 0.3% Delta-9-THC.
David Rancio [00:15:14] To have that basically deleted overnight would be a massive problem. I mean it will literally translate to job loss day one for a lot of these people because they have nothing to backfill that loss capacity for.
Charlie Sharpe [00:15:26] And Jasmine Hup says the situation is even more confusing right now in Texas. Ryan Rooks is co-founder of American Weed Company, an Austin-based beverage company.
Ryan Brooks [00:15:42] It’s legal one week, the next week it has to get out of the state, then it’s legal again. And so we have, we’ve been a big advocate of low-dose THC hemp beverages. We understand the market appetite, not just here in Texas, but nationwide, and we think a low- dose beverage like ours has a chance to make a real impact in the future. And, so we’re pushing for that both federally in Washington, but also here in Texas.
Charlie Sharpe [00:16:11] For most of the business owners. The path to salvation is paved with regulation. Hup says that in order for this industry to survive, they’ll need to take some notes from alcohol.
Jasmine Hupp [00:16:20] I imagine a future where cannabis and hemp are treated equally and fairly and are easily available to the adults that want to choose them. We imagine great labeling, great packaging, super clear, age-gated, ID checks, all the things that we want, regulation.
Charlie Sharpe [00:16:43] We’re here for it.” It might be the influence of the products at the expo, but I didn’t see a single frown. Despite the challenges, as a whole, the industry seems pretty optimistic. David Rancio says, it’s simple. You can’t regulate away demands.
David Rancio [00:17:01] Consumers always win and they vote with their dollars and there seems to be broad support for hemp beverages basically across the aisle and across the nation and So I’m not a betting man, but if I were to put a couple bucks on and I’d say something gets done here before November
Charlie Sharpe [00:17:17] It’s a billion-dollar bet. Come November, we’ll see who gets the pot. In Austin, I’m Charley Sharp.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:27] We are coming up on a break here on Austin Signal, but we wanted to let you know that the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for Travis Hayes, Williamson, and most other counties in Central Texas. That heat advisory is in effect now through tomorrow night at eight. Some of the counties to our west are not included in that advisory. However, some counties to the east will be under an extreme heat warning. That’s from 8 p.m. Tonight to 8 p?m. Tomorrow. We have more Austin Signal coming your way after this break. Stay with us. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. Eric Byrd is a native Austinite, civic strategist, and community leader. He’s also the executive producer of the recent film, Thoughts and Prayers. He sat down with Black Austin Matter host Lisa B. Thompson and Richard J. Reddick to reflect on growing up here in Austin and how brilliance can be found in the places we least expect. You are from Austin. Straight from the east side.
Richard J. Reddick [00:18:26] So we gotta do the whole roll call of your schools and I’ll make really rude comments as you speak. So tell us where you went to elementary school, middle school, high school, the whole thing.
Eric Byrd [00:18:33] All right. So elementary was Norman, the great Norman elementary. The principal was principal Jones at the time. And we had, I would say a very robust curriculum that taught us who we are. I’m very proud of the fact that they did not shy away from, um, enveloping us in our blackness and our culture and our history. And so I know who I am partly because of their dedication to, to teaching us who are. Um, then I went to Dolby middle school. We were opposite the Pierce Pirates
Lisa B. Thompson [00:19:05] Oh.
Eric Byrd [00:19:07] And, uh, Dolby was a great experience as well. Um, lots of love for that community. Um, and then I went to LBJ through.
Richard J. Reddick [00:19:16] Lassa. Oh Lassa, okay, okay. Started off at the science academy.
Eric Byrd [00:19:23] Oh, yeah, see, it was a great program. Started off at the Science Academy, actually was the first graduating class of Lawson.
Lisa B. Thompson [00:19:30] Wow.
Eric Byrd [00:19:31] It’s a remarkable institution. It is, it was challenging. The degree of rigor was something I hadn’t had before. So it was a big challenge for me, and I was an introvert, so I kinda receded into my shell, but there were enough supports for me to graduate and get out the door.
Lisa B. Thompson [00:19:49] A lot of people don’t realize that it is one of the best high schools in the United States. Yes. Not just in the state of Texas.
Richard J. Reddick [00:19:56] And this is a great chance for us to give a little bit of Austin history, because the science academy started at LBJ and the liberal arts academy started at the Johnston high school.
Lisa B. Thompson [00:20:05] Wow.
Richard J. Reddick [00:20:05] And my wife was in the second graduating class of liberal arts academy. And so they merged at LBJ and then you have LASA and LASAs now located at the former side of the Johnston High School on Arthur Styles Road. So shout out to the, what are they again?
Lisa B. Thompson [00:20:24] I don’t know, they’re new, they are current.
Richard J. Reddick [00:20:26] Raptors. Raptors, yes of course. Raptor, yeah, like, short arm.
Lisa B. Thompson [00:20:30] I was focusing on his college right now, so I’m sorry.
Richard J. Reddick [00:20:35] So yeah, we got these connections together. So it’s better now, but shout out to the Jaguars anyway. And what about after that? You’re younger than us, so it wasn’t the Southwest Texas state.
Eric Byrd [00:20:45] I was the first graduating class of LASA, the first incoming class of Texas State. But right before us, it was Southwest.
Richard J. Reddick [00:20:58] Nah, do you have any Southwest swag that you walk around with? You’re just like, nah, I’m Texas State, man.
Eric Byrd [00:21:02] You know, we were never Southwest. Okay. We were the first class of Texas State. So we kind of were there proudly.
Lisa B. Thompson [00:21:07] Okay, I love it. He likes to begin things. Yeah, he’s up
Eric Byrd [00:21:12] Terrorism in many ways.
Richard J. Reddick [00:21:13] So, Lolita’s Tacos, you down with it?
Eric Byrd [00:21:15] Uh Oh, it’s, you know, it has been so long. Man, I’m talkless. I have to say. Off the chain.
Lisa B. Thompson [00:21:22] What are your favorite memories of growing up in Austin?
Eric Byrd [00:21:25] Oh, my favorite memories are playing with my cousins. So I have a big family. My grandmother had 14 kids and she was one of 11. And I think the last count were at 52 cousins.
Lisa B. Thompson [00:21:40] Wow.
Eric Byrd [00:21:41] Just on my grandma’s side, and so it was a lot of us, you know, we were there after school, especially during summers, we would all get dropped off with our bags with our play clothes in it, and we would just roam the neighborhoods and that was it was the most fun I ever had. We would play games, run from dogs, play football, basketball, all the things, just go on walks and it was it, was the best fun I’ve ever had, so those are my fondest memories in Austin.
Lisa B. Thompson [00:22:08] It’s so beautiful. What are the changes in the city that you’re really happy about?
Eric Byrd [00:22:16] Austin’s changed a lot and I think the changes that make me the most happy are the opportunities for folks. I think we have, as a growing city and as a bigger city now, we have a lot of economic opportunity. There’s opportunity for people to make more money through tech and all of the investments that have been placed in the city. Yeah
Lisa B. Thompson [00:22:41] Because usually we talk about what disappoints us about the changes, but I do want to hear about that too. What’s the most disappointing part of Austin’s change, changes in growth?
Eric Byrd [00:22:53] Yeah, along with the opportunities, there’s also the downside. There are certain people who aren’t able to take advantage of those opportunities. And I think the most disappointing part is the growth without community input or community investment. I think when we do it right, it looks like the community taking part in the planning and the execution of the growth. But when we it without the people, then we ultimately get harmed.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:20] That was Austinite and civic strategist Eric Bird speaking with the hosts of the Black Austin Matters podcast, Lisa B Thompson and Richard J Reddick. We’re going to have a link to that full episode in today’s podcast show notes. That is it for us today here on Austin Signal. Thank you for making us part of your day. And we have more from the show at kut.org slash signal our Austin Signal team. Is Rayna Sevilla, Alexandra Hart, and Kristen Cabrera. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We will be back at the same time tomorrow and we’ll talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
