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Mexican and Tejano communities built Austin’s food scene from the ground up, from early 1900s street vendors and family-run cafés to the Tejano restaurants that became neighborhood landmarks. Now, as gentrification reshapes the city and pushes out the very communities that created this culinary legacy, they’re fighting to hold onto it. Hear from the people keeping Austin’s taco history alive in a city that’s forgetting who built it.
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Diana Vasquez Valera [00:00:00] You know, so it’s important for people, and y’all are showing this by being interested and by feeling that we’re worth saving. I think the city, the powers at bay miss the boat. Because they had here in our community, in our families that established this area with their small little business with no loans and just doing it the hard way. And we have and continue to have so much to give and so much to share and we are a community and we are a culture that loves to share in every aspect.
Mando Rayo [00:00:51] You might have to dance. What’s up taco world? I’m taco journalist, Mando Rayo, and welcome to the Tacos of Texas podcast, El Seis. Seis, seis, seis. Produced by Denny Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX Studios. And we’re back exploring taco culture in Texas through the eyes of the people in the Lone Star State. So grab some queso, Austin style, or maybe some wok. How about that? And get ready for some muy tasty taco conversations. Thanks. Alright folks, today we’re talking about Austin taco history, tacos, Tejanos and the fight against gentrification. Mexican and Tejano communities build Austin’s food scene from the ground up. From early 1900s street vendors and family run cafes to the Tejana restaurants that became neighborhood landmarks. Now as gentrifications reshapes the city and pushes out the varied communities that created this culinary legacy. They’re fighting to hold on to it. Anybody heard about the 1928 master plan? A few of us, yeah, where they pushed and forced black and brown communities to the east side. We’re also gonna talk about a modern day example of gentrification happening on Maina Road as well. So it’s the cycle, it kind of keeps cycling. History keeps repeating itself. Of course, we’re grateful to the Tamale House East and its team for hosting us and the delicious food. Shout out to Carmen back there, whoop whoop. Our volunteers, we have very scrappy volunteers. Thank you so much for being here. As well as Alan from ATX Barrio Archive. Alan created an ofrenda of some of the restaurants that are no longer with us. So you can go back there and look at some of their restaurants. He saves all those signs and menus and shirts. You know, before they’re like taken by some big crane that happens here in East Austin every few years. Of course, I’d like to thank KUT and KUTX Studios, our partner Elizabeth and Tinu. Shout out to them. And of course, our team here, Identity Productions. We have Louise, Dennis and Nick. And of course, this project is supported in part by an elevate grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment. So thank you so much. And thank you for being here today.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:03:53] Yeah! Applause
Mando Rayo [00:03:59] Okay, to help us with the discussion, I’d like to actually introduce our guest, Ms. Diana Vasquez Valera. Is the matriarch of the Tamale House East, part of a family that has fed Austin since 1958. When her parents opened the original Tamale house at first and Congress, she grew up making tamales besides her mother, ran Mexico Tipico on E6 with her husband, Juan, and in 2012 helped her five children open Tamale houses East on that same spot. Today, she leads an all-women kitchen that still makes every tamale by hand the way her mother taught her. Cristina Torres and her husband, Edgar, where you at Edgar? There you are. Now run Mi Madres, the family restaurant, his parents, Aurelio and Rosa Torres right here. Woo, man. We got all kinds of local celebrities here. They opened Mi Madre’s in 1990. What started as a 10 seat taco counter has grown into a Maynard Road institution known for Saltillo style tacos and Sunday barbacoa. The pair opened. Schoolhouse Pub and James Beard nominated Techo Mezcaleria. After more than three decades on the East side, the Torres family keeps the legacy going to provide a gathering place for the neighborhood that grew up on Tacos. Shout out to Mi Madres and to Christina. All right. Monica M. Martinez is an award-winning author, teacher, and public historian. She is the author of The Injustice Never Leaves You, Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas. She co-founded the award- winning public history project, Refusing to Forget, and she has collaborated with the Texas Historical Commission and the Texas State History Museum. To develop public memorials and exhibits. Thank you Monica for joining us. All right, well, let’s get into the conversation. Cristina, let us start with you. What were the earliest memories of Mi Madres when it started and what was your experience like in those days?
Cristina Torres [00:06:20] Yeah Well, we moved back. My husband and I moved back in 2007. So those were the earliest days that I remember. But hearing all the stories and everything like that of just him growing up here on the East Side and them opening up a restaurant with hardly any money, paying rent month to month to own the property. Um, I know that it was, uh, It was not the best neighborhood. I know when we moved back in 2007, we were like, we should probably take the bars off the windows now. It might be the time. But my father-in-law was invested in the community. It was, at that time, a historically black and Hispanic community. He bought properties on the East Side all around the neighborhood. And just the neighborhood changed year by year. And then in 2007, it was more hipster and artsy. And then it kind of changed into what it is now. Condos being built everywhere, million dollar Mexican restaurants being put up everywhere. So yeah, it’s changed every decade. That I’ve been here. I’ve here for two, but they’ve been here for three. So, yeah. Just different.
Mando Rayo [00:07:58] No, and I remember, you know, I actually used to work at the old United Way there and I would always go, you know and shout out to them because they catered my wedding, right? Remember that? Oh my God, it was so good. Okay, Ms. Valera, can you tell us about, you know the original Tamale house on first in Congress and what did Austin look like back then and what year was that?
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:08:26] Before I do that, first of all, I’d like to say a very deep thank you to Mando. You have devoted and have been such a dedicated person to try to preserve what I feel is important and what all these people hear because they’re here interested in hearing about how we are being lost. And so I want to thank you and I want thank all of you for coming. I see some familiar faces from in the morning, so you probably saw us running around. Without a line cook, but we’re here. But anyway, back to your question. I guess my earliest memories of my mother and father opening up in 1958, I was 12 when I went, so I was a little older, and I just loved being there. I love the scene, as they would say. There was always a commotion going on, there was always something to eat, and my husband Juan and I were dating that and I think that’s why he married me. He never had, well that too, but he was in, at college at St. Edward’s and so, you know, was in Chiladas all the time, in Tomales. But anyway, I remember, and if I close my eyes, I can remember and even smell the aromas of what was going on. And all the women were about my size that I am now. And it was always a party. It was always a commotion, as I said. And it just was a good feeling, good feeling. And they stayed there until the middle of 88. And at that time, there was another pendulum swing. And so Austin had decided that it needed to go back to Central Austin downtown. They had done the malls already. And so now everyone had it to go into the center. And so some people needed to leave. So there was a big building, one Lincoln Center. They jokingly, we jokingly said it was really the one tamale center. But, and I actually remember when they paid me a visit because they were interested in this property and they were very nice and they brought lunch and everything for us and I was sitting there and they say, well, you’re not saying much. I said, I’m just thinking how ironic. I’m sitting here on top of what was a 300 square foot little kitchen of a little family that started here. And so… It made me sad, you know, that change comes and I know that change has to come. But I think that sometimes care isn’t done or taken with the people that settle an area. And that’s what happened to a lot of the families here. I was happy working there because I was helping my mother. And I was learning every day. And of course, my tamales are the same taste, but they’re just bigger. Because I said, if you’re going to go to all this work, make it worth your while. Charge $8, not $0.15. So from there, I opened up here in 84. When we opened up, my husband built the restaurant. I was pregnant with my fourth child and had a fifth, so I was busy also doing that.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:11:57] Thank you.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:11:58] But I figured, and I told him, we need to have a house upstairs because I need to be with my children. Restaurant work, just to begin with, it’s just, it can consume you. And having five children, I would have never seen them and I would a big babysitter bill. So that worked out and my children, you know, graduated and they’re doing fine. I have now Carmen. And I would not be doing this without Carmen. She is, she’s not only my daughter. But she loves the business and she takes care of it. It’s better than me sometimes because I run out of steam. So back in the, I guess it was in the early 90s, again the pendulum came and swung me on the other side of the head and said it’s time for change again. And everyone was talking about these 10 or 11 acres that Capital Metro owned. And then it should be developed by a big, developed person. We should have these huge condos and these high rises and everybody needs to go again, you know? And that didn’t quite settle with me. And my sister at the time, you knew my sister Kathy? Yeah. She’s a, she’s a. Yeah, you’re no Kathy, okay. So at the times she was a planning commissioner, which frankly for our community, she was on the inside. And I was on the outside, and I was maybe the face of the movement, but she was pushing the buttons. And so we got together. At that time, it was 21 restaurants, which probably most of them on that board.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:13:45] Yeah.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:13:46] All of our restaurants are gone, you know, Tapatia, Nueva Leon, Asteca, they’re all gone. And so we went to Capital Metro in the city and we said, we don’t want high-rises. We have lived in this community, a mixed-use community where we’re zoned and we’re not really that and we are not this. We’re red-lined, you can’t take loans because you’re business, you’re in the wrong, we’re in a wrong place. Well, it was our home forever. You know, my grandfather came in. 1921, my father’s family was here when it was Mexico. So how much longer do you need to be here, you know? And so we did push, and fortunately at that time there were some ice team monies and we were able to get the money donated or loaned to us for two years from Capital Metro, which they said we must dissembled after two years. Well, fortunately for us, the government came down and said, well, no, what have you done? To help the community? What have you done to make life easy for the residents? Well, we’ve done Plaza Sartillo, you know? So that is why Plaza Sertillo is there. Because of the efforts of our little local newspapers, the efforts the businesses, many of which are gone, and not only restaurants. And trying to make it work. How do you tell the city, how do you Tell Capital Metro that they must do something for the community and that was done, you know. So it’s been a long road. My road has not been as long, as hard as my parents were or their parents. And it continues to be a difficult road. Because now what has happened is that… The real culprit, your tax appraisal district, can tax you whatever you want. They can say, you’ve been here since 84, but you’re no longer to call yourself a home. So.
Mando Rayo [00:15:59] Because your whom is here, not just like, you know, figuratively, right?
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:16:05] Right upstairs, right upstairs. You go up the stairs. My home is upstairs. I had five children there. I ran up those stairs, pregnancy is held. And now it’s not my home, you know. So it’s important for people. And y’all are showing this by being interested and by feeling that we’re worth saving. I think the city, the powers at bay, miss the boat. Because they had here in our community and our families established this area with their small little business with no loans and just doing it the hard way. And we have and continue to have so much to give and so much share. And we are a community and we are in a culture that loves to share in every aspect.
Mando Rayo [00:17:02] Yeah, beautiful. Thank you so much. Please give it up. Dr. Monica, Dr. Martinez, please. So there’s kind of, obviously, what we’re talking today about the lived experience. But then when structurally these policies go into place, what does that mean for our community, right? So Austin’s 1928 city master plan pushed Mexican-American families to the east side. And how does that history set up for today’s gentrification fights? You know, still continue here in Eastside, right? In the East 6th, 7th Street, Mainy Road.
Monica M. Martinez [00:17:46] How much time do we have? It’s a long history. Well, I mean, the real privilege of teaching here in Texas is that I get to teach students who are from cities across the state and students who are Austin. And many of them have never heard of that plan, for example. And so understanding the history of not only state efforts and city efforts to create societies that were segregated. So oftentimes when people talk about injustices of the past, for example, they say, well, that’s just the way things were. Or if we talk about institutions like slavery, for example. Well, it was legal then. And so some of the work that I do as a historian, but also as a public historian is to try to teach those histories that expose again that that’s the way that those nations were built. The Republic of Texas committed to the institution of slavery, to protecting it. Even after it was a state in the Union. Austin has a history of violence, of displacement, and that continued into the 20th century. So the master plan taking place and shape in the 20s, uprooted the Freedmen’s colonies from West Austin, forced African-Americans to move to the East Side, forced Mexican-Americans move to East Side. And for those that really try to stay. You know, the city did things like, you know, not connect homes to sewer lines in some neighborhoods that lasted well through the 60s and into the 70s. So there’s a more recent past related to this history. But I think the ways in which that history is also connected to the restaurants, the schools, the churches of East Austin, is that they were provided space where people built community, right? Out of this this process of forced displacement, they made homes and lives here. And the restaurants in East Austin, for example, became places where African-Americans, Mexican-Americans could eat with dignity. They could be welcomed and nourished, and they could find joy and have celebrations, things like birthdays. And that was not an experience that they could have if they went west, into West Austin, where. They experienced segregation in places like restaurants. So I think when we understand the histories of segregation and its impact on people, we can talk about the injustices, we can about the harms, but we also have to pay attention to the people who built communities here, insisted on joy, and restaurants are an important part of that. I think sometimes people tend to think about churches and schools, But, but. Restaurants are the places where people gather as well, and they have those memories of their birthdays, you know, that they celebrated at a restaurant. Or when my boyfriend got me a bean and cheese taco when I was not craving, he got it from the wrong restaurant with black beans, not right. And my sister was like, we gotta go to Mimad. My sister’s here.
Cristina Torres [00:20:59] I think that’s what we were talking about, just like food being nostalgic and warming your soul, you know? When you go away out of town or you move away and come back, what’s the first thing you want? It’s like you want migas, you want tacos, you know? So it’s What we were talking about before is feeding people feeds our soul, and that’s our love language. We feed people and make them happy, our kids, our kids’ friends. And it’s a place where my mother-in-law, families would come in with new babies and just be overwhelmed at eating. And she’s like, give me the baby, I’ll hold the baby. You guys eat. And we just see her at the front cash register just like holding a baby. We’re like, whose baby is this? But it’s like that’s. You know, that’s the community, especially, you know people, all the transient people and all the people that moved to Austin that don’t have families here. We became that with food and just a place where you feel at home. We become like their second family. So I, food is very important to us. Yeah.
Mando Rayo [00:22:05] How do you, you know, so obviously you have Mi Madres, Schoolhouse Pub, Techo, Mezcaleria. So how do you continue that? How do continue that sense of community in a very kind of fast changing street? Yeah, it’s a…
Cristina Torres [00:22:23] It’s changing all the time. We try and keep up with all the different new trends and things like that. But at the end of the day, it’s hospitality and how you make people feel. At Schoolhouse Pub, we always have, I’d like to say that all of our employees are very welcoming and make you feel as part of the community. And we’ve had people meet at Schoolhouse. Have their engagement photos there, have babies, you know, like, and it’s just really nice to see the different generations be like, oh, I remember coming here when my son was first born and now he’s having kids or I don’t know, it’s definitely changing and we try and pivot, especially during the pandemic and all that, there were a lot of changes that we had to make and just one thing at a time, I guess, because we also have three kids. Um, three businesses, it’s, it can be a lot, but, you know, seeing all the faces and everybody that’s rooting for you, it is important. It’s important to have that, that sense of family.
Mando Rayo [00:23:32] And right now there’s a lot of changes on Manor Road. Hoover’s just retired, right? That building, that space guide, there’s one owner that have, they’ve bought three big lots, including Hoover more recently, they have that Este restaurant. And when you have somebody that can come in and buy multi-million dollar properties. How do you, how do you compete with that?
Cristina Torres [00:24:07] I guess you don’t. We just do what we do best. We stick to who we are. And like you were saying, starting a business without a loan with just the money in your pocket, not having millionaires to back you up, it’s hard. And it’s scary because I see the ofrenda and it’s sad. It’s sad that these families aren’t, you know, they’re not able to share with everybody what they love to do and it’s Sometimes when business is slow, I do It’s terrifying Because I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t feed people. I don’t know
Mando Rayo [00:24:55] Yeah You know, I think it’s a hard, it’s hard to navigate the growth of Austin. Right. So when you, you know, the 1920 master pen, that display, that’s displacement happened and then, and then all of a sudden these businesses starting to come up, right in the fifties and the sixties, seventies and eighties. And then in the nineties, they were trying to close down those taco trucks on the East river side until Torgee’s taco came along because it was white And so, while you’ll never get a, you know, the health department over at the city say that, but why were they trying to close down the Mexican ones? And not the white owned Torchis taco trailer. You know what I mean? And so when you have that much displacement, Dr. Martinez, what does that do to a community?
Monica M. Martinez [00:25:57] Well, I mean, it completely disrupts a community. So I think there’s not only the layers of the kinds of harm of uprooting people from their homes, which is a pervasive history in U.S. History, but then you also have the kinds of, you could describe it as like a moral injury when you see these places where you rode your bike or… The, those nostalgic places, you know, get completely demolished and the space itself transformed. But then there’s also the history of, of neglect. And so people making community and lives in, you know, East Austin, when, you know, well into the 20th century, into the sixties and seventies, there were roads that weren’t paved, or we could think about the, the lack of investment in things like sidewalks. And then of course, the environmental risks of having things like fuel tanks and all other kinds of industries that expose people to health risks for living in East Austin. So then, to have somebody with generational connections who has that long view of a relationship with the city or the state that sees people in different areas and different places as disposable or easily removable. And then to see investment in those neighborhoods after certain populations have been moved. It shapes how people interact, see their relationship to the city, to the people in governance. And it makes it really challenging to claim belonging. And so I think, you know, that’s why the restaurants that remain, the schools, the churches, they become symbolic of people holding on. And really insisting on claiming space in a really rapidly changing environment.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:27:51] I’ve lived a long time. I’ll be 80 in December. So I keep wondering, OK, what’s next? No se nota. Es toda la manteca de los amares. I use the same treatment on my barba. I make a special max. That’s my special. Look, we’re never going to be able to compete on the same economical level. The businesses that come in are now groups. They have $500,000 social media budgets. That’s a lot of money, okay? What we can compete on, and what I continue to believe, is that we’re real, we’re authentic. Can’t get rid of that, you know? I always should say there’s the dirt of East Austin’s under my nails, you now? And when people come into our restaurants, they immediately… Feel, I know there’s something different here. It’s us. We’re the ones with the special decoration, the different kind of music, the real plants, Carmen. The real plants. Not the fake, okay? And when someone sits at Carmen’s bar and they eat one of the tamales and they hear the story that my mother made them and I was 12 learning them and I’m still making them, they want to cry because it tastes like their grandma’s food. So you can’t get that from a can. So that’s how we compete. And we compete on making people more and more aware that we’re special. And someone needs to care and save it before it’s totally lost. And it’s pretty much lost already. And so I always, when someone says, what do I do? I’m so glad you’re still here. Don’t leave. I said, I don’t want to leave. My bed’s upstairs. But… If you don’t come, yeah, yeah I will have to leave. If you’re planning a party and go somewhere else because they have margaritas made with eclair or whatever that, eclair, instead of real limes like my baby makes. Well, you know, so the more that people understand and want to keep whatever remnants there are of us, because after all, everyone that’s new here, they came because they liked our trees, they liked our little houses, even when we didn’t have. Garages. It didn’t matter. They liked our wood floors. They liked our music. They like our dance and everything. We are special. We’re a treasure. And the only ones that sometimes forget because we’re so downtrodden, beaten down, is us. And we just have to band together with the people who love our culture and who do want us to stay, whatever’s left.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:30:57] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for being here.
Mando Rayo [00:31:04] So let’s talk a little bit about legacy. What does this legacy mean for you, Ms. Valera? You know, this whole idea around your family and the institutions that you built from the first buildings in South Congress to the Tamale House, you know, on Airport Boulevard to this location. What does legacy mean?
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:31:25] Legacy is just not me, and legacy just hasn’t been my family. It’s been all the families that endured, that wouldn’t give up, that wanted to preserve what their culture was. All of our parents worked very hard, and they had to work twice as hard or three times as hard to educate their children and to have a small, humble home. They had a hard life. And what they hope for with the next generation, their children, what I hope for for my children is that each generation, it gets a little bit easier and it gets the little more, okay, we’re gonna make it, you know? Legacy, yes, the food is one way, our music is another way, our art is another, name it, we do it all, okay? So, legacy to me is celebrating not only my mother and father, not only my family. But everybody’s family that settled this area and maybe didn’t have the time or the opportunity that I might have. And so sometimes when I get, oh, God, I can’t, this is so hard, you know? I say, well, my mother worked, I wish I could do half of what she does. You know, I have no reason. And it makes me mad that it’s been hard for them, it’s being hard for the families. But then I say no. It is my obligation, it is my heart wish that I make it. I make, and it might not be in this form. I may do a cook show. I may have just parties here, because it’s easier.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:33:08] Yeah. Yeah.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:33:10] Who was going to be here to say we were here? And that’s why I fought so hard for the plaza, because there was not gonna be anything left. It was all intended for parking and high rises. And I like to think in my own little way that maybe I put a dent in that plan. Maybe not as big as I wanted, because I’m not pretty big, you know, I’m little. But. Yeah. But maybe it put the brakes a little bit. And what it did was that the people that came over and saw what a jam it really was, they wanted to move here. And that’s perfectly fine. The culprit is not the people they come. It is the agencies that tax us to we can’t exist anymore. It is other restaurants. They have the ability to do more economically. But like I said, we may be the underdog, but we are very, very stubborn.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:34:13] We’re stubborn.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:34:17] And there is a gene in us, a preservation gene, as it is in yours, Mondo. And you know that. No matter how hard it is, you go to all these little restaurants and you make their story an important story. You do.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:34:33] Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. Here we go.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:34:38] Who else is going to tell it, Mondo? Who else was going to record it? OK.
Mando Rayo [00:34:43] Yeah, yeah.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:34:44] So we always have to have the youngsters come in and help us.
Mando Rayo [00:34:49] Oh, the youngsters, like me? Okay!
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:34:53] You’re younger than me, and someone else will be younger, but if you can instill in your daughter, she’s going to know why you do it, and she’s gonna say she’s got to carry on the legacy, because that’s our legacy.
Mando Rayo [00:35:10] Beautiful. Dr. Martinez, we talked over the phone about this. So recently, I did an episode called Did Taco Bell Steal the Taco? What happens to a community when you take something that’s structurally important to that community and don’t honor it, don’t give it meaningful compensation, and just run with it? So Dr. Martinez, let’s talk about this Americanization campaign that we talked about about, well, I’ll let you do it.
Monica M. Martinez [00:35:50] Yeah, well, I think the history of discrimination extends to food, and so there were in the late 19th century and early 20th century Americanization campaigns, and some of those campaigns targeted Mexican-American women, namely trying to change their practices in the home. The idea is that if you could teach a mother to raise clean children and teach them English, that you could help with the Americanization process. But in that, there were intellectuals of their era, academics who made guides and curriculum and who created a culture of intolerance for things like Mexican food. And so tortillas, for example, kids taking tortillas for lunch or tacos for lunch was something that could be a point of shame. And so that’s something that we grew up, well, in learning about civil rights movement in the 60s and 70s, about students who were tired of discrimination, were tired things like English-only policies in schools. And so when they organized walkouts or when they organize actions, calls to desegregate schools, for example, some of the actions that they took was to bring tacos to lunch, to say like, we’re proud of this. And something that my mom reflected on, telling me, the kind of shame that she experienced in Uvalde schools where they experienced corporal punishment for speaking Spanish, were segregated, was that she was taught that it was better to eat a sandwich with white bread and baloney instead of the corn tortillas that her mother hand made with frijoles. And she’s like, decades later, I’m not a nutritionist, so I’m giving nutrition advice here. But, you know, I grew up in a cafeteria that said, went to a school, elementary school with a cafeteria that said no Mexican food served here. And so the sort of cultural politics of consumption and the way that that has just radically changed over the course of generations now to see, you know Taco Tuesday, the attempts to copyright that. You know, back in the day when I was a student at Brown, My mom had to mail me a wakates. For my birthday, and now you have a Chipotle and a taco bar. And so I think it’s not lost as a, with the historical perspective, it’s lost on people who experience that kind of discrimination to see those contradictions now, right? That that consumption of Mexican culture and people like Vicky Ruiz, another historian has written about this, like it asked, do food ways bring people together or does it signify otherness? And she found, you know, that consuming other people’s food doesn’t mean that you’re more empathetic. Or that you are building bridges. So I think the culture of consumption is something that today students who grow up with, I don’t know how many breakfast tacos they could get within like a 50-yard radius of where their dorms are, where they’re living, know that history. And that is a part of, I think, when we think of these restaurants that have nourished communities, that make food that reminds them of their abuela’s food. That that’s a part of a tradition of sustaining communities that have experienced that kind of harm and abuse. And so, it’s a cherished contribution to humanity, the taco, the tamale, I mean, it it’s not too much to say that I think that, especially when people are experiencing harm or trauma or are. Being policed, that to see themselves, you know, welcomed and embraced and fed and nourished is not something that we should underestimate.
Mando Rayo [00:39:46] Thank you. Thank you That’s a very similar story that I’ve often heard when I interview elders. It’s like, yeah, we couldn’t bring, we would hide our taco because we were shamed in school. And now everyone’s going to eat on Taco Tuesday, whatever. But here’s the thing, they want the Mexican food without the Mexicans. And so how do we continue to share our stories in a way that opens. People’s eyes and curiosity into the culture, right? So these are just some final questions and thoughts. Christina, you talked about the soul, el alma of our establishments. How do you introduce that to new people moving in and build a new community? For those that want… To see you thrive.
Cristina Torres [00:40:52] Yeah, I think more than, you know, blaming gentrification or the city or anything like that. I think this is more of a call to action to all of your followers and all the people that you’ve impacted, all the small restaurants. Just go support local Hispanic-owned businesses that have been around for 15, 20 years. Thank you. Thanks. Get out there, eat tacos, feed your soul. I mean, there’s nothing else that you can do except go sit on these patios, drink the margaritas, you know, and just enjoy all of these little nuances. Sometimes, Mi Madres, I’m like, there’s just so many different pieces. And, you know. It’s. Something about it feeling like home, like you were saying, the plants, the feeling, it’s not modernized. It’s not like the new modern taco shops, sleek, metal, it warm.
Mando Rayo [00:41:58] Robot a robot restaurant. Yes
Cristina Torres [00:42:02] So it’s all the cracks in the walls, it’s the Virgen de Guadalupe, it is the way that it makes you feel and it feeds your soul. And I just want to implore East Austinites, Austinites to support these businesses because we don’t want to be on that ofrenda. It’s terrifying. Like I said earlier, we don t want to to be there. We want to in your soul, we want you to be like, oh, we should take the kids out for. Fajitas. And nothing fancy, just queso and fajitas, you know. I don’t know.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:42:39] Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:42:43] We’re all creatures of habit. We get, you know, even when we go out to eat, we have certain places. But I think there has to be a conscious effort, through some time of market and plan. But the next time you’re going to eat let’s just take a look at what’s around, still around, and go there. Or next time, you’re gonna throw a party, even a small party. It makes such a difference whenever we have an event, even this one, you now? And so I think it’s the difficulty is how, as you said, do you get people to realize that before it is too late, you know, sometimes.
Mando Rayo [00:43:26] Dr. Martinez, any final thoughts?
Monica M. Martinez [00:43:30] Well, I have to give a shout out to my tías and my mom because they have continued a tradition that my grandmother started with us making tamales for Christmas Eve. And so it’s a multi-generational effort now. It’s so much work, like three days of work. It’s much easier to just come and buy and eat them. And I’m not a good cook, so it seems better. But just to say that there’s a lot of work to do also, and I’m so grateful for the Badio Archive for helping to document the restaurants that are no longer open, and to take seriously the need to preserve the histories of these cultural spaces of these restaurants as a part of Austin’s history, as a a part Texas history, US history, and so celebrating the history, documenting it is so important.
Mando Rayo [00:44:26] Thank you. Thank you all. And, you know, I think if you’re listening, if you hear, you know, if your listening out there, like, think about these these places and the people behind them, you know, and if you see something that, you know, it doesn’t matter if you are just coming in for one taco, but come often, you know, come back to these, you know, not everything has to be flashy and with gold flakes on them.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:44:59] Ha ha ha ha!
Mando Rayo [00:45:02] But I know the history and the roots of, you know, of a lot of Tejanos and Mexicans and for them to flourish and continue to be part of East Austin. And East Austin, you know, people love to say East Austin Oh, it’s so hip and I want to be there. But but they don’t visit these places. And we need more of that. We need more recognition. We need more, you know people coming and enjoying themselves and and and forming those habits, right? Yeah
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:45:40] People are more apt to take the time to write a bad review. Like, I didn’t like the color of something or whatever, something that’s totally, that had to do with food. And so, we just need to train ourselves that, if you felt good about an experience at one of these places, write about it. So, sooner or later, these might outweigh the one single one that you hope they never come back. Because they were a pill since they walked in. And nothing or anybody or any food or any chocolate was going to make them happy.
Mando Rayo [00:46:20] And, you know, everybody has an opinion. On that note, on that note I know you all have opinions. I would love to open it up for just a few questions if anybody has a question from the audience.
Speaker 6 [00:46:33] Hello my name is Neil and my question is you were speaking about the 1920 Austin plan. I don’t have any context or history around that I’m curious to know a little bit more about that and how it was established and the outcomes of it.
Monica M. Martinez [00:46:48] Okay, so we’ll just, really quickly, no, it’s a great question. Yeah, it was good. And actually, the city of Austin has documented some history about the plan. So if you Google 1928 Austin plan, it’ll come up. But it was an effort led by the city. They hired a city planning firm out of Dallas to design a plan to segregate Austin. I mean, the goals and, you know, what they wrote about when they published this plan. The firm was very clear that their strategy, they hoped would be ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court if it was ever challenged. So that plan just made it the imprint of the city of Austin and what it is today. And so it’s something that the city of Austin itself has tried to educate the public about, do some research, publish some reports. But it was a phenomenon of the 20s really of urban planning that tried to, again, create these segregated cities and communities.
Mando Rayo [00:47:54] The redlining that happened throughout the South is part of that. And yeah, there’s so much information out there. All right, another question? Question, yes.
Monica M. Martinez [00:48:06] I believe the city council voted for it and then hired the plan. So it was, it was.
Mando Rayo [00:48:10] But when you think about the structures, the power structures in place in 19, the 1920s, who was that? It was white men. Right? Yes. Can you come up here and tell us your name and your question?
Speaker 7 [00:48:29] Okay My name is Alicia, also called Alicia. I have been a customer here since they started. And I want to say it’s the most wonderful place to have entertainment and have special times for we did Eskina Tango recently. Those of you who are familiar for that, I had my 80th birthday here. But they will open the place for your party. We are having a reunion of the People’s Community Clinic in March, and we’re again having this all here because everybody wants to come back and see this. So I’m so grateful that they are here and that they provide this fabulous space for us. And you can have a band up here. And you dance out there. And you have the Frida Kahlo room back here, which is wonderful for photos. And we’ll dance too.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:49:28] You forgot to say Diane, we’ll join in.
Speaker 7 [00:49:31] Diane will dance with us too.
Mando Rayo [00:49:34] Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay, one last question back there.
Speaker 8 [00:49:42] I just wonder as now society generally in Austin really seems to be embracing Mexican food generally. Does that feel authentic or does it feel like you were saying Taco Bell has kind of taken over the identity? Does it feel real? Do you feel welcome to feel embraced within the food culture here today?
Mando Rayo [00:50:09] Do you feel embraced by the food culture that’s here today in Austin 2026?
Cristina Torres [00:50:18] No, I just don’t think I’d have anything nice to say, but you should say something.
Mando Rayo [00:50:29] We are here for it.
Cristina Torres [00:50:30] I just think places that have been around for a while are forgotten and like our history’s forgotten and all the hard work and time and energy put into our neighborhoods. I think it’s now about the new fancy shiny thing and for people that don’t understand what it was like 10 years ago, 20 years ago 40, 50 years ago. I’ve been around a long time. Look.
Diana Vasquez Valera [00:51:01] You’re never going to stop people from starting businesses and everyone is free to start a business. And if they’re fortunate enough to get the money together, either way by groups or whatever, it is what it is. But we are who we are. And if we continue to share what we know, and if we continued to produce a good product and we can get the word out that they’re missing out. So many people that were going to another restaurant, any one restaurant, and it wasn’t Mexican, and they just didn’t have a reservation or whatever, so they come and sit down. And we can hear them talk and say, hey man, this space is nice. And they stay. And so once they experience it and get to know you, they’re going to be customers, okay? Because we can’t stop a lot of the things are out of our control. And the train has been going very fast. But these types of gatherings, if you go tell, write a review, or if you tell two people, and if you can get somebody in here, they’re gonna fall in love with whatever you have to offer and enjoy your food, because that’s what we do best.
Mando Rayo [00:52:22] Beautiful. Thank you so much. Let’s give it up to our esteemed panelists. Beautiful. All right, now I’m gonna do my outro, so, and then we can kind of keep eating and maybe having a drink. This has been the Tacos of Texas podcast, developed and produced by Identity Productions. If you enjoyed today’s episode and are craving more taco content, go to our website at identity.productions or follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube at IdentityProductions and United Tacos Of America. This is your host, Mando el Taco Journalist, Rayo. Vamos a los tacos! In the next Proximo, Tacos of Texas, Miga’s Madness, Austin’s ultimate showdown. Which Miga taco will be crowned the winner? Let’s celebrate Austin’s iconic breakfast taco and why it defines the city’s food scene.
Louisa Van Assche [00:53:34] The Tacos of Texas podcast is presented by Identity Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX Studios. Our host and producer is Mando, el taco journalist Rayo. Our audio is mixed by Nicholas Worden. Our video production is taken care of by Dennis Burnett. Our wonderful interns are Quetzal and Diego Rayo, and our story and line producer is me, Luisa Min Van Asse. Music was created by Peligrosa in Austin, Texas. And King Benny Productions located in the Quinto Barrio of Houston.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
