Tacos of Texas
Mando Rayo
October 27, 2026
Austin Taco History: Tacos, Tejanos, and the Fight against Gentrification
Recorded live at Tamale House East, we hear from Mexican and Tejano families that built Austin’s food scene.
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October 20, 2026
Conflict Foods: How food and a detention center affect a small town in Texas
This episode is about conflict foods and what happens when the stress of having children and families detained in a detention center and the role food plays for these families.
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October 13, 2026
Cristina Everett joins us from Ensenada ATX, the Baja-style food truck her family built on East 12th Street.
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October 6, 2026
“Yo Quiero Taco Bell”? We explore the roots of a beloved fast food chain that many have come to know and love.
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September 29, 2026
Taco Cousins: Empanadas, Pupusas y más!
From empanadas to pupusas and beyond! We explore the various cultural interpretations on handheld, masa-filled magic.
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September 22, 2026
San Antonio’s Fajita Lounge Showdown
Come with us to San Antonio for the annual Fajita Lounge Showdown, folk! Hear from competitors and Aaron Peña, the mastermind behind the competition.
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September 15, 2026
Explore how Black, Indigenous, and Mexican histories connect through identity, food, migration in this live-taped episode.
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September 8, 2026
Halal Tacos: A Mexican, a Muslim and a Rancher walk into a taqueria
In today’s episode of Tacos of Texas, we’re talking halal tacos. Yeah, you heard that right. We sit down with chef Jon Escamilla of Vecinos Tacos, the East Austin truck that went full halal and one of his most loyal regulars, Imad Ahmed, the customer who walked up one day and asked the question that […]
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About
El Seis of the Tacos of Texas Podcast is taco journalism at its core. We open with a mom cooking en la casa amid fears of ICE, we sit down with Gina Hinojosa on why she’s ready to take down Abbott, and head into the barrios where Tejano families built Austin’s taco scene, now fighting gentrification. We close our heaviest stretch with “conflict foods”outside a detention center in Dilley, tying today’s story back to the Japanese internment camps in Texas.
But it’s a season filled with sazon as well: a taco truck gone full halal, a live taping on Black, Indigenous, and Mexican Texan history, empanadas y pupusas, fajitas in San Antonio, three generations of Baja-style women in East Austin, the Taco Bell debate, and a Migas Madness showdown to close it out. Twelve episodes, one taco at a time, we’re continuing to share the stories of Tejas.
CREDITS:
IDENTITY Productions
http://www.identity.productions
Host and Producer: Mando Rayo
Story Producer: Sharon Arteaga
Audio Mixing: Nicholas Worthen &
Ever Calderon
Creative Producer: Dennis Burnett
Host
Mando Rayo’s experience is deep-rooted in Latinx & BIPOC communities. Mando is a digital story-teller and uses his Latinx identity to inspire and build bridges through his production company, IDENTITY. From working with Laredo Taco Company, Beef Loving Texans, KLRU-TV, PBS Austin, Whataburger, Austin Film Society, People en Español y más, Mando shares stories through food, culture, documentaries and digital platforms. As an avid taco ambassador, food explorer and street ethnographers, Mando has traveled across the U.S. to uncover the tastiest tacos, from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to L.A. and New Orleans to New York City. Mando is the producer and co-author of ‘The Tacos of Texas book (UT Press) & docu-series with PBS Digital Studios and United Tacos of America TV Show on El Rey Network. Mando’s work has been featured on Bon Appetit Magazine, The Food Network, NPR, The New York Times and SXSW.
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