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There’s one week left to get registered in time to vote in the midterm elections. The deadline is approaching as county election staff across the Austin area work to process thousands of applications that Texas DPS failed to send.
One week after an ICE agent shot Wilber Garces Perez, demonstrators returned to the scene to continue protesting. Misael Ramos, a candidate for Austin City Council District 1, was arrested this weekend and charged with participating in a riot that immediately followed the shooting.
We’ll chat with the director of a film chronicling how Austin restaurants struggled and adapted through the pandemic.
Austin has a new theme park and KUT got a special sneak preview before they officially opened up. We’ll take you out to COTALAND.
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] There is one week left to get registered in time to vote in the midterm elections. The deadline is approaching as county election staff across the Austin area work to process thousands of applications that Texas DPS failed to send. And one week after an ICE agent shot Wilbur Garcés-Bérez, demonstrators returned to the scene to continue protesting, and an Austin City Council candidate for District 1 was arrested this weekend and charged with participating in a riot that immediately followed the shooting. We’ve got the latest updates coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:37] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:42] We’re gonna chat with the director of a film chronicling how Austin restaurants struggled and adapted through the pandemic. Plus, Austin’s got a new theme park and we got a special sneak preview before they officially opened up. We’re going to take you out there. Those stories and more up next on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal. Thank you for tuning in. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. It is the last Monday of September the 28th. We’re glad to be part of your day. Protests continued over the weekend over the shooting of Wilbur Garces Perez by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in North Austin. KUT’s breaking news reporter, Gabriel Velasquez-Nada has been covering the protests and he is here with us now. Gabriel, thanks for your time. Of course, thank you. So first, let’s talk about the protests. There was a lot of things that happened this weekend. Give us a recap of what took place over the weekend.
Gabriel Velasquez Neira [00:01:40] Yeah, so the first thing that happened was that Misao Ramos, a city council district candidate, was arrested and that led to a press conference late Saturday and very eventful because he came out in the middle of it. He was just released from jail. And then on Sunday, there was actually two protests, one at 2 p.m. At the site of the shooting and then one at 6 p. M. At The South entrance of the Texas Capitol.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:02] Let’s talk a little bit about Misael Ramos. He was arrested for something related to something that happened this weekend, or when did that go back to?
Gabriel Velasquez Neira [00:02:10] Right. So it was last weekend, September 20th, after I shot Garthas Ramos, that they were protesting at the site of the location and they started barricading or some of the protesters started barracading the roads. And so I talked to Travis County Sheriff’s Office. They said eight people were arrested. And of course, one of them was Ramos who was booked into jail on Saturday. And you had a chance.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:34] Speak with him when when was that?
Gabriel Velasquez Neira [00:02:36] I had a chance to speak with him at the press conference afterwards. We talked about, you know, what he had for lunch, what they gave him, how his dog was doing, and mostly, I guess, how we felt about, in the morning, three, four cars coming up on him and then five officers detaining him just on a Saturday morning. He didn’t know he had an arrest warrant, so it was quite a surprise for him. Okay, let’s listen to that too.
Misael Ramos [00:03:02] I can’t imagine how some families have gone, you know, longer than a day without hearing from their loved ones, not knowing where they’re at, where they are located, and this has to stop. This terrorizing our communities has to stop.”
Jerry Quijano [00:03:20] Okay, you mentioned his dog. For those who might not be familiar, how was he arrested on Saturday?
Gabriel Velasquez Neira [00:03:26] Right, so he was walking his dog on Saturday morning, when a state trooper car came up on him and then started being like, hey, are you Mr. Ramos? And he was like, I don’t know you, started walking away. And then, you know, more officers jumped out. And then he was, like, hey, can I put my dog away? And a neighbor was close by, so they were like, he was able to hand it off. And then was whisked off to jail.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:51] Okay, you can read more about that story. I will have a link in today’s show notes. Let’s talk about the protest that took place yesterday. You spoke with some of the people who were out there. What did you hear?
Gabriel Velasquez Neira [00:04:00] It was interesting because for some people it was the first ICE protest, for others it was their first protest in general. And it was pretty sizable, I think more than 150, 150 was a conservative estimate on my end, but I was kind of surprised to see how strong it was going, the chanting, the amount of speakers that they had, and it was hot. It was a hot day for people to be out in the sun and chanting.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:30] It’s been more than a week since that ice officer shot Wilbur Garces Perez. What do we know? What is the latest information about him?
Gabriel Velasquez Neira [00:04:37] So the latest information is that on Wednesday, I’m going to be going down to San Antonio. I’m gonna be hearing the deportation case and then hopefully by then I’ll have more updates for you.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:46] Okay and when we have those updates we’ll bring it to you here on Austin Signal. Last question for you, are there any more protests that are planned this week or in the near future?
Gabriel Velasquez Neira [00:04:56] I think it’s more of a developing thing that they post on Instagram a couple days in advance and at the moment I’m not sure.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:03] All right, that is Gabriel Velasquez-Neda. He is KUT’s breaking news reporter, very busy this weekend. You can read his stories over at KUT.org and we’ll have a link in today’s show notes. Gabriel, thank you. Of course, thank You, Jay. County election staff across the Austin area and across the state are in a frenzy to process thousands of voter registration applications after the Texas Department of Public Safety failed to send them on time. As QUT’s Katie McAfee reports, some of the applications date back to October 2025.
Katy McAfee [00:05:37] DPS says they caught the error late last month. The agency’s own investigation into the incident found it was caused by an unnamed third-party vendor. DPS said they quote, proactively caught the issue. But local county election staff don’t exactly agree. Travis County voter registrar Salia Israel said in a statement she’s deeply disappointed in DPS. The error caused 32,000 voter registration applications to land on her desk overnight. That’s on top of several thousand more applications the office is getting from voters signing up before the October 5th deadline to be eligible to vote in the midterms. Williamson County officials say they are also working around the clock. They got 18,000 applications overnight. Hayes County got over 8,000. Staff from each county say they are working to ensure everyone who has registered to vote can confidently cast their ballot on election day. I’m Katie McAfee in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:37] This month’s shooting of Wilbur Garces Perez was one of the highest-profile incidents of immigration enforcement in Austin of recent memory. But there has been an increase in ICE enforcement here in the last few months that’s been invisible to a lot of people. More ICE activity means hundreds of Austin families have been affected. QUT’s Greta Diaz-Gonzalez-Vasquez has the story of one of those families.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:06:59] Yesenia Santiago was born and raised in Austin. She went to Ann Richards for middle school and high school and then ACC. She met Lucas at church. Their family friend introduced us and we started talking. Talking led to dating. They loved going to blockers for wings. There were countless nights of dancing at bailes. On weekends they would go to La Pulga, the flea market and to church every Sunday. He met my family and they all really liked him. They always had matching costumes on Halloween and matching outfits at parties.
Yesenia Santiago [00:07:29] He’s such a patient and go with the flow person. I could literally tell him to wear anything.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:07:35] And he would wear it. In arguments, Lucas was always the one that stayed calm. After a few years of dating, they got married. They bought a house, moved in together, shared dreams. Finished paying off her house, traveling, grow old with her kids. After some years of trying and losing one pregnancy, they had a baby. Yesenia became a full-time mom, Lucas a loving father.
Yesenia Santiago [00:07:58] After seeing him become a father, I didn’t know you could love someone even more.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:08:03] Yesenia is a U.S. Citizen. Lucas Santiago is not. He was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He came to the U. S. When he was 16 and he worked his way up, owned his own carpentry business. They did try to fix Lucas’s immigration status.
Yesenia Santiago [00:08:18] But because he didn’t have a legal entry per se, he couldn’t do an adjustment of status.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:08:25] He had to file for a waiver to stay in the country while fixing his status. They’re still waiting approval. But when the second Trump administration began, they were afraid. Yesenia started doing the driving wherever they went. They didn’t travel anymore. No more bailes.
Yesenia Santiago [00:08:39] We haven’t gone to the pulga because because we know those are targeted areas and we.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:08:45] Away from that. Yesenia’s social media filled with videos of immigration and customs enforcement agents detaining people in Austin.
Yesenia Santiago [00:08:52] I would tell him I don’t want to wake up one morning and see you on Facebook and he said you’re not like
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:09:00] don’t think like that. Last week Jesenia woke up to a text from Lucas. He, his brother and a co-worker had been taken by eyes on the way to work. And he said if I could go pick up
Yesenia Santiago [00:09:11] the work van because they got them and that the keys were in the van.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:09:16] She tried calling him, but it went to voicemail. She scooped up their 14-month-old son, Yadiel, and drove to where the work van was.
Yesenia Santiago [00:09:23] In the van like when you open the door it looked like workers going to work eating their morning breakfast their morning coffee
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:09:33] The tacos were still freaking warm. That afternoon, Lucas called. He was in a processing center in San Antonio. She didn’t hear from him again until the next day.
Yesenia Santiago [00:09:44] Oh my god, it’s my husband. That’s your concern, tell me.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:09:51] Okay, babe.
Lucas Santiago [00:09:52] No, here everything is fine, just that we just entered in the…
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:09:57] He told Yesenia he was fine. He had been moved to a detention center in Taylor. Yesenía had lots of questions, but… The first thing she wanted to tell him was that she missed him and loved him. As always, Lucas remained calm. He tried to reassure her he was fine. The tension wasn’t as bad as she might think. He said that even if he had to wait months, he was going to be patient.
Lucas Santiago [00:10:26] Here’s what you need to do, be patient and don’t worry.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:10:29] I don’t know
Yesenia Santiago [00:10:32] I have to learn how to be without you because…
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:10:35] Desenya told him she had to learn to be without him. She knew she would need to be strong, but it was hard.
Yesenia Santiago [00:10:41] Yo puedo, yo soy una persona capaz, pero ahorita siento que…
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:10:45] She felt like her world was falling apart.
Lucas Santiago [00:10:48] No, you hold on to the hand of the young man and be strong and stronger than your pregnant wife.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:10:55] Lucas told her to hold on to God, that she’s got to be strong now more than ever because of the baby that’s on the way. Yesenia is 32 weeks pregnant with their second boy. Their son Yadiel reaches for the phone when he hears his dad.
Yesenia Santiago [00:11:10] Okay
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:11:18] Lucas told them both that he loved them, but he had to go. Okay, thank you, I’ll be back.
Lucas Santiago [00:11:23] Okay, anyone? All right.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:11:30] They hung up. Lucas in detention, Yesenia and Jadid at home. Yesenian knows they have a long path ahead. Their lawyer wasn’t optimistic. Essentially, she didn’t.
Yesenia Santiago [00:11:41] Tell me everything was gonna be fine. She told me right around now, things are really difficult in immigration courts.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:11:49] Right now, they can’t ask for a bond in Texas, so Lucas will stay in detention. He could either accept deportation or try to get a cancelation of removal.
Yesenia Santiago [00:11:58] So for this, that means he has to be in detention for over six months.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:12:03] On top of being away from him, just to file paperwork and pay their lawyer, Jesenia has to come up with at least $12,000. I don’t work.
Yesenia Santiago [00:12:12] Even if I had the money, he handles that. He’s the home head of household. He handles logging into the systems or automatic payments or I don’t know, for my car, for our insurance.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:12:25] When someone is taking from your life, there are emotional voids, but also practical ones. The paperwork is unforgiving. Yesenia knows she needs to figure out a lot of things, including going back to work. I guess so.
Yesenia Santiago [00:12:39] Be looking into like childcare. I also give birth in eight weeks, so I don’t know if I can find childcare a job and then give birth and then go back to work.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:12:48] Yesenia says it feels like she’s telling a story that doesn’t belong to her, but she also knows this is her life.
Yesenia Santiago [00:12:55] Loving someone who’s undocumented is just so hard but I didn’t ask for it like I’ve always had that fear in the back of my head like obviously but I couldn’t just stop our lives because it’s like a piece of paper.
Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vasquez [00:13:14] Yesenia knows their life together doesn’t end here. She hopes one day Lucas and her will be able to continue with their dreams. But right now, that’s up to the immigration system. I’m Greta Diaz Gonzalez Vazquez in Austin. Unta Papa!
Yesenia Santiago [00:13:33] Come on, daddy. Which one?
Jerry Quijano [00:13:43] You’re listening to Austin Signal. This is listener-supported public radio KUT News. We’ve got more for you after this quick break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back to the show. Rollercoaster lovers won’t have to drive as far to get a rush of adrenaline now that a new theme park is open here in Austin. Coda Land at the Circuit of the Americas opened to the public on Saturday with the ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday night. Austin Signal’s Alexandra Hart went to check it out.
Alexandra Hart [00:14:24] The 30-acre theme park is the first and only one of its kind in the Austin area and has attractions ranging from high-intensity roller coasters to kid-friendly rides. Among them, a carousel, which Stephanie Nimke and her three-year-old son Braxton are waiting to board.
Stephanie Nimke [00:14:39] What are you most excited to ride today? Can you say the kitty on the carousel? I want to say the Kitty on the Carousel!
Alexandra Hart [00:14:46] Nymke says she’s impressed by the variety of the rides.
Stephanie Nimke [00:14:49] Just really beautifully laid out and I think there are so many amazing rides out here for everybody in all ages because they have a little big girl that’s 11 years old and then our son is three and so there’s just something for everybody.
Alexandra Hart [00:15:01] That was by design, according to Griffin Tendler, Vice President of Marketing for Codaland. He says the idea was to put family-friendly rides near higher intensity ones, rather than putting all the low-intensity attractions in a separate kids’ area.
Griffin Tendler [00:15:14] I think the most important distinction for all of the rides here is that the whole park was designed and the flow of it where the rides are were designed to keep families together to keep to make families you know create the memories together so where there’s one thrill ride there’s three or four kids rides right next to it.
Alexandra Hart [00:15:31] Plans for the park were first announced in 2020, and while the original opening date was set for 2022, it was pushed back several times before finally fully opening to the public this weekend, including the park’s two marquee roller coasters, palindrome and circuit breaker.
Griffin Tendler [00:15:50] So I think everybody knows about Circuit Breaker. Circuit Breakers is the first tilt coaster in Texas, and I think the only other one is at Cedar Point. We have Palindrome, which is the only shuttle coaster to go over an active roadway.
Alexandra Hart [00:16:02] Circuit Breaker First opened to riders last October during last year’s Formula One U.S. Grand Prix race at COTA here in Austin. It features a segment of track that hinges forward from a horizontal to vertical position before connecting to the next segment of the track, dropping riders at a 90-degree angle. The park, however, is facing a lawsuit after the coaster malfunctioned in December. Court documents say park visitor Matthew Cantu and a friend were stuck on circuit breaker for more than an hour with the tilting portion of the track stuck in the vertical position. According to the lawsuit, being stuck in that position, then having to finish the ride rather than being evacuated, caused serious injury to Cantu’s head, neck, and back. In a statement, Codeland said it was reviewing the claims in the lawsuit but it couldn’t comment on details because of the ongoing litigation. The statement said, quote, the safety and wellbeing of our guests remain our top priority, end quote. For those looking for a little less altitude, the park also offers another high-speed attraction. Hot Lap is an add-on experience where visitors can ride around Cota’s Formula One racetrack in a BMW M3 car. Blythe Quimby and her friend, Guinevere Porcelli, are in line for Hot Lap. They said they don’t know a whole lot about racing, but Porcellis’ uncle, who works for the park, flew them in from out of town to check out Cotaland, and they didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to ride on the track. Here’s Quimbey.
Quimbey [00:17:26] Our school, we’re from UCF in Florida and there’s a lot of huge F1 fans there so we’re definitely ready to go back and brag about it to all our friends.
Alexandra Hart [00:17:36] Paris Mullins, senior vice president of motorsports at Cota, says Hot Lap is the only attraction of its kind where riders can ride shotgun on a purpose-built Formula One track.
Paris Mullins [00:17:45] I think what’s interesting about this is that most of us are in cars every day, right? So we feel like we have this idea of what it would be like. And when you’re driving on a racetrack, it’s completely different from the road. It’s a very unique sensation.
Alexandra Hart [00:18:03] But that unique sensation comes with a price tag. It’ll set you back $175. That’s on top of park entry. For everyone else, there’s still plenty of other things to do. The park has more than 30 rides and attractions in all, and Griffin Tendler, VP for Marketing, says with land set aside for their planned expansion, there’s more to come.
Griffin Tendler [00:18:24] There’s a lot of projects though that we’re not allowed to disclose right now, but I can tell you that we will make use of the 1,500 acres.
Alexandra Hart [00:18:31] Kodaland’s operating days and hours vary, and tickets start at about $40. I’m Alexandra Hart in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:49] It’s been six and a half years since the world first went into COVID lockdown and the hospitality industry was hit particularly hard. Some joints here in Austin closed forever, others laid off staff and yet were able to bounce back and survive. Filmmaker David Lu profiled a few restaurants during that time and now has a film out called To Be Seen. It’s played at a few spots around town and the next place you can catch it is this Friday at We Love Video. We caught up with David to learn more about his project. Well, your film features quite a few chefs and people who work in restaurants here in Austin. Why don’t you tell us about a few of them?
David Liu [00:19:26] Yeah, so the first one that we interviewed was actually foreign and domestic. So Sarah Heard and Nathan Lemley, they, I got to see their story kind of unfold right in front of me. I had met the owners shortly before lockdown and as soon as lockdown happened, I was one of their first to go orders and they had never really done to go in that manner and seeing the types of pivots that they had to go through to make it, I mean, That’s kind of the start of our friendship and the start of me thinking about. It would be interesting to tell a story like this. And then I saw, you know, Locodoro, who for the longest time had closed as a restaurant and we didn’t know what they were doing. This was after the pandemic had started. And when they reopened, I was like, okay, what happened during that time? I don’t have any context, but you know in meeting the owner, we got access to be able to go and interview and tell that story. Lauren Lewis, Barbecue. I’ve had great experiences knowing the owners. And for Locodoro, the owner, that I mostly interacted with was Chef Fiore. And for Leroy& Lewis, you have Evan Lerroy and Suri Lewis, hence the name Leroi& Lewis. So for those main three restaurants, that is what I kind of built the story around. And then the fourth story of that was Tai Sun Nguyen, and he’s a good old college friend of mine. I actually met him in our photojournalism class here at UT. So, you know, you never know where those type of connections can come, but every one of those restaurants, I kind of had an interest in how they were doing things and why they were good. And a lot of what made them good, not necessarily just the food, was how they approached treating their labor. How are they approached treating the experience? And I think that those parts of how they create, they were so passionate about the way they approached their identity of food, that’s how I kind of chose each one of those subjects.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:32] Yeah and that really comes through during the course of their interviews, they’re talking about how they’re dealing with the actual situation that’s playing out in front of them, but how they are dealing with it on a human level, person to person. We hear a couple instances of people not really sure how many staff members to keep on because they don’t know what the future is going to hold and how quickly things might change. I found really interesting how Locodoro and a few other restaurants kind of pivoted from 75 to 200 dishes per night. To mass producing like meals for AISD students or students all across the city. What was something that you just really found interesting over the course of the film?
David Liu [00:22:09] Well, that was one of them in in classic documentary style, right? I’m going in thinking, oh, I know the story. I’m gonna maybe tell, right. I get to their interview and he starts talking about this and I’m like, oh no, this is a much bigger story. And now it’s my responsibility to shepherd this story to completion.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:31] Well, your film certainly caused me to further inspect my experience with Austin restaurants and it’s particularly going out to eat. How did your experience with the Austin restaurant or Austin dining change over the course of making this film?
David Liu [00:22:46] Well, I think it answered kind of a critical question that I had had for a long time, which is as a relatively introverted person, why would I actually want to go to a restaurant, right? And when I was cutting the film, there was this moment where I hear Fiore’s opening lines. You don’t need a restaurant to eat, you need a restaurants to be seen. And it then occurred to me that these restaurant tours and these restaurants are third spaces, right. They are what help us understand the context of how we interact with society and see other people across socioeconomic boundaries, across political boundaries, across any other boundary. That is our malting pot. And the opening of the film is like an existential crisis. It’s like we have these moments and then they’re taken away. And like, okay, well, what places do these serve? And in some ways, in the second half of the films, is where the real film starts, right? Like you have like the first half of the film, which is the pandemic era. The second half of these characters is 2022 through 2025, which you think there’s nothing that important to cover, right? Except that we are seeing for the first time, the harm that was done to society across the globe about how we have changed, us as patrons have changed. The workers have changed and in so doing, we are seeing society having to repair itself and understanding why certain things aren’t the way they were before or may never be the same way again. It’s this kind of magnifying glass on us as a society across the world about what happened during that time and also a form of like potentially trying to process that trauma.
Jerry Quijano [00:24:35] We have been speaking with David Lu. He is the director of To Be Seen, a documentary taking a look at Austin’s food and restaurant scene during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 freeze. We’ll have a link to more in today’s show notes. David, thank you for your time. No problem. And thank you out there for making Austin’s Signal part of your day. We have more about the stories we shared with you in today show notes, and you can always find more from us over at kut.org slash Signal. We are listener-supported public radio. Thank you for tuning in to KUT News. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director. Alexandra Hart is our producer. And Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We’re gonna be back at the same time tomorrow. 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.
