Tacos of Texas

Mando Rayo: What’s up Taco World? I’m Taco journalist Mando, and welcome to the Tacos of Texas podcast, El Cinco, 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 your bre, your favorite breakfast taco.

And plenty of Ghana and get ready for some mui Tasty Taco conversations

today we’re live at KUT Austin in KUTX Studio one A for a special episode with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Maria Ino. So, you know, we are here live, eh, so give it up for the tacos.

So I’m very excited to have this conversation today. We have, uh, uh, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Uh, you know, like, I’m kind of like in awe of your presence right now, uh, just by two two Mexicanos talking about not only tacos, but the meaning behind tacos and the community that comes with that. Right.

So everyone please give a warm welcome to Maria Noosa

Maria Hinojosa: Raz. Yes, Maria.

Mando Rayo: So it’s kind of funny, like I’ve listened to you for years, so it’s kind of funny, like the echo in my ear, like hearing you like in person.

Maria Hinojosa: It’s weird, right? It is weird. And, and what you’re not really saying out loud is also, oh my God, she’s so small. She’s such a jabara and I’m wearing six inch heels, so Oh.

Oh,

Mando Rayo: okay. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Uh, so Maria, we’re in your casa. Right. Yeah. This is kind of where you started at UT campus.

Maria Hinojosa: Yeah. So Latino USA was, uh, founded by our founding executive producer, Maria Mia Martin. May she rest in peace. Um, it was conceived originally by Gilberto Cardenas, who at the time was the director of the Center for Mexican American Studies.

Um, and so we started in 1993 in a place that did not look like this. Mm-hmm. We were in the basement.

Um, but it is where it started. And most people, when they found out about Latino USA on public radio, um, they were like, oh, that’s such a cute idea. Mm-hmm. Aw, it’s gonna last like three years. That’s like, so not gonna make it. Um. What year is it? 2025. We were created in 1993. So do the math. We’re over 30 years on the air.

Um, and what that does is it creates an extraordinary amount of, um, connection with your audience. Mm-hmm. And, um, and they connect to us because of our integrity and honesty. And so it’s, yeah, but it start, I mean, I have a lot of memories of being on this campus and I have a lot of memories of food in this city and in this state.

Um, so yeah. Let’s get to it.

Mando Rayo: All. Right. Right. Well, well, you know, like, let’s go back to Latino, USA and the, the, the. Importance of telling those stories and having like a station like NPR as a, you know, when you think about NPR, you think of kind of very mainstream type of, uh, news organization. Why was it important for you to really kind of tell, not only Latino stories, but but stories coming from people of color communities?

Maria Hinojosa: Right. Well, so at the time when we were. Doing that. When Maria, Maria Emelia Martin and I were talking about, um, the launch of Latino, USA, she was a creative mind behind it all. And she tapped me to be the anchor. Um, and we were lamo, I mean, how do I say this? Well, maybe people who listen to this podcast will get itra was, you know what I’m saying?

We were Latinas within NPR, specifically National Public Radio. The headquarters. The corporate headquarters. And we knew that we wanted to, as it were, shake things up.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: And not just to make, uh, to be rabble-rousers, but rather to make people think. So we were very clear that it was going to be a show that was authentically bilingual.

Yeah. It was not gonna be a show in Spanish. If it happened, it happened.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, and we also. I mean, we’re good journalists, which means we look at data and we could already see the data on the demographics of Latinos and Latinas because unless you have your head in the sand and you don’t wanna see it, we are and have been the future of this country for the past.

I mean, in the sense that our population is growing, right. Therefore, our influence, therefore how we see the world, how we experience the world is not, um. It’s not like a, and I don’t use this term in any of my work, but for the context of it’s not a minority perspective. No, we’re

Mando Rayo: not,

Maria Hinojosa: we’re not. That word never comes outta my mouth unless I’m, unless I’m, uh, trolling it as it were.

Mando Rayo: Consider yourself trolled

Maria Hinojosa: America.

Speaker 4: I mean, I just,

Maria Hinojosa: look, I just don’t think that the term minority has been beneficial to our country. Mm-hmm. Because white America is scared of becoming a minority. Mm-hmm. And what we’re trying to say is, yo, but you like our tacos, right? You like, you like us ish, you know, so esma.

You know what I’m saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Latino USA was there to say, our stories matter. We have fought to try to get them into the mainstream, right? You see us as a sidebar story. We see us as a central story in the United States of America. And so that’s why we claim this space. And we knew that it was not just.

Political. It was not just data, but it was about, you know, um, uplifting stories because that’s also who we are. Right. It’s not just, it’s not all, but we do love to cry. Yes. Um, but, uh, so that’s what we’ve been doing. And, you know, Maria left the show. I’ve had Maria moved to Central America in the early two thousands.

Um, and then I took over the show with FU Media, which is my nonprofit media company. Mm-hmm. Um, I took over the show in 2010, and now Futuro Media owns Latino, USA Outright. Mm-hmm. Um, and now in a crazy twist of things, not only are we distributed by public media and public radio on Almo, like almost 400 stations, if not already, 400 stations, but we’re distributed commercially by iHeart Media.

What, what, um, you know, and that basically allows us to have access to about 250 million listeners on a monthly basis. How could we say no? Mm-hmm. Um, even though Latino USA is in our will always be a public radio independent, um, production, it’s, it’s ours. Yeah. It’s ours. Beautiful.

Mando Rayo: Beautiful. You know, as I think about kind of the stories of Latinos and just, and maybe under even underrepresented communities, I off often think about food.

Food is kind of this way that it opens doors, right? And we always say, we always say tacos. We use tacos as a Trojan horse to understand people and their communities and their issues. And so in regards to kind of your reporting, um, you know, it’s 2025, everyone, right? And tacos are hitting different.

They’re being politicized. De and it didn’t start this year. You know, they’ve been politicized, uh, for, uh, for many years. And now people are like, well, like, can we actually, you know, like we’re, we’re, we’re both online and we’re always like, you know, uh, uh, sharing our stories. Like, and, and for me it’s super important to understand, like, so what’s behind the tacos?

What are those stories and how do we share that? Right? And even, even if in a political environment, it’s important to kind of use our voice to, to, uh, to share those stories. Right? So what are you seeing out in, in, um, you know, as, as you travel the world, Chicago, um, you know, some of the rates that have been happening in restaurant.

What, what are you seeing on the impact of, of that?

Maria Hinojosa: Well, actually I have to respond honestly to when you started talking about tacos and kind of memory and I was just like, yeah. Like my earliest happiest memories. ’cause I wanna be happy first before I talk about the horror that I’ve been seeing. Yeah. Uh, and like I, how I profoundly and radically identified as a proud Mexican immigrant girl on the south side of Chicago was knowing that I could eat, I don’t know what it was, like 20 tacos, Perros tacos de coc.

Yeah. Um, no, actually it was, yeah. Co Was it coc? No. El pastor. It was El pastor with. Pineapple Oye. Like, like my Americans freshly cut. Yeah. No standing, you know, as a little girl. So I’m trying to think like, was I 10 but I, we counted them. Everybody in the family was counting Poto. No. And I think I got up to like, I don’t know if it was like 17 or 20, but I, and, and you know, we would pride ourselves once we, so that was in Yucatan ’cause we would drive down from Chicago.

Speaker 3: Okay.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, and so in Mexico City it was like, uh, the local Rados, which was called Tacos Los Cruzs, which is no longer there. I just drove by and they’re no longer there in, sat in the suburbs of Mexico City. But then we would pride ourselves on going to any place in Mexico City that we had heard. There was no digital era.

This is the seventies, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That we had heard, had great tacos. So tacos and this is like outside of the home,

so, so the relationship of tacos and our, our memory, our childhood memories is profound and deep.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: Now you want to compare that with memories right now of little, very specifically, we’ll, we’ll talk about Mexican and Mexican American kids and I’m gonna use Mexican and Mexican American because of this conversation, but it implies.

From Ghana, from Haiti, um, any child that is a child of, um, who is not born here or is the child of immigrants or undocumented immigrants is in a state of terror right now.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, so I’m assuming that whatever it is that they’re eating in these moments has to be a source of profound comfort.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, and we also know the horror that people are not leaving their homes to go shopping.

So I’m thinking about kids that are actually maybe hungry, right. Because they, they want to eat the tacos parados, but they’ve been told, well, we can’t go out.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, so, you know, that’s why I wanted to start with the real positive memories because I, yeah. Yeah. I try to find joy in every I, I live like Einstein.

You know, Einstein says there’s only two ways to live. One is as though nothing is a miracle

Speaker 4: Uhhuh,

Maria Hinojosa: and two is as though. Everything is a miracle. Nice. And so I choose to be in this highly existential state, especially now. It’s like ca is gro and there can be miracles of like profound joy, but then there’s the miracle of horror.

I mean, it’s a miracle in the sense of like, how the hell did this happen?

Speaker 3: Right.

Maria Hinojosa: Not a beautiful miracle. A miracle of horror. Um, and we, you know, I’ve just been on the front lines in Chicago and in Los Angeles, and being Mexican, being Latino, Latina, Latinx Latina, um, they have, they have made us into the target of hate by this government.

Yeah.

You know, um, and I’m gonna use some very extreme terms and people are getting very upset with me, but I’m just like, well, are, are you there?

Mando Rayo: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: Come with me.

Mando Rayo: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: Because I survived nine 11 as a journalist in New York City and I covered that story and I remember feeling that night like the bombs were gonna fall in my apar on my apartment in Manhattan.

Um, and just like that terror and then just kind of living with that real fear and then feeling that fear on the streets of Chicago and la and so it becomes, uh, you know, it’s the government that is terrorizing us. Yeah. Like what it is the government, it is mostly men in masks, by the way. Many of them.

Shamefully Latino. Yeah. And Latina. Um, so talk to your family members because they are doing this.

Mando Rayo: Yeah. Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, so I think for me that’s, you know, the o the other side is like the, the thought of a child eating Una tortilla de al, you know, just tortilla gonzal, which is something that we love, but also I’m like, but is that child satisfied with that?

You know? But then again, but that child is feeling comfort. So I’m very, um, I think the appropriate word is traumatized, to be honest.

Mando Rayo: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot of trauma in our communities happening, and it just didn’t start obviously with this year, but here it’s like, it’s in our doorsteps. Right. And so we often, you know, those of us that have kids, that’s kind of like, that’s always there.

It is always there. You know, for us, during our, during the first Trump, there was, um, there was a lot of stress around that because Austin has, has been um, um, a sanctuary city, right? And so it was targeted and so that’s why they’re targeting LA and Chicago, right. And now Portland. And so, so that, that stresses it, you know, Portland, that hotbed of Mexicans.

Yes. You know Portland where the Chicanos are out of control. Yeah, they are. They are. Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah, right. But, but, uh, you know, at the same time it’s also like how do you give comfort when, or keep the stress at bay for, for your children, right. And that’s kind of like, for us, at least for me as a father, uh, me and my wife and, and, and really focusing on that because there’s a lot of stuff out there, you know, so how do you, how do you do that?

And then when you think about like what gives them comfort, right? Is a taco pedo or, well, for folks that don’t know what that is, there’s some folks that might not know what that is. Oh my God.

Maria Hinojosa: Of course I have to, I have to realize that’s true. So Taco Parrado is, um, it is a taco that is eaten standing up.

Mm-hmm. And so it’s kind of like, well, what does it, and actually the standing up part we were talking Mando, is actually really important. The standing up of it. Yeah. Because it means that it is. Um, well, I think the relationship with the person who’s making the tako is different because you’re actually oftentimes ordering it from him, right?

Or her directly.

Speaker 3: Yep.

Maria Hinojosa: Truly, mostly men. Okay. Um, but then he, but who’s making a tortillas? Ah, always the women re So true. Um, so the Taco Parado, it is very much a Mexico City thing.

Mando Rayo: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: Because it means it’s kind of doing something on the go as Mexico City is. Um, it is ridiculously fresh. Um, and it is about the standing, like I was just having one of these, we’ll talk about this taco in a moment, but I was having standing tacos, very particular kind of tacos in Mexico City steps away from his SoCal, the, the, the presidential palace.

And it was about the crowding of the sidewalk. Mm-hmm. It was about the bumping elbows with whoever it is, um, who’s standing next to you, which could be a businessman or it could be a police officer. Mm-hmm. Um. It’s also about tacos rados happening at any time, right? Yeah. Because they happen late into the night after a lot of drinking.

You go have a Taco Perro, but sometimes in the morning, you know, if you’re, if you know the place to go, you can get tacos, rados for breakfast. Mm-hmm. So, um, yeah, it’s, and the thing about it is that, you know, I always wanted to open my own ria, but in New York, um, where I live now, you actually can’t do that.

Kind of like, they have very strict rules mm-hmm. On open grilling, et cetera.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: So it’s not that easy to have a Taco Parado. You have taco places in New York, but most of them are, you gotta sit down, there’s a few, but truly they don’t ever match to the scale of Mexico City Taco except for one. Okay.

In Atlanta, Georgia. Okay.

Mando Rayo: Oh, okay. All right. I know, I’m just being honest. Well, I do hear, uh, there’s a big, uh, pool guy in, in, uh, in Atlanta.

Maria Hinojosa: Oh. Georgia was one of the original receiving spots from Mexican Chicanos when the south began to transform Georgia and North Carolina, but now it’s the entire south.

Oh, yeah. And so we are going to have, um, next generation south, southern American tacos for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, for

sure. I mean, ex exist, but I’m like being very specific, like Mississippi Tacos or Alabama tacos. Like what? I mean, you’re laughing, but it’s true. I mean, it’s gonna be, yeah. And we don’t know what that’s gonna be.

Right. But I can’t wait. And that’s what everybody’s freaking out about because the South has experienced the south, uh, the, the southern. So Texas, all like the South, has experienced the most intense, um, demographic change over the past 25 years. And frankly, I’ve been, I’ve been documenting it, so yeah.

Mando Rayo: Beautiful, beautiful. I’m here for it. Yeah. And then, you know, like I always say, it’s every Mexican’s dream to open up their own. I didn’t know I shared that

Maria Hinojosa: with so many Mexicanos, but, okay.

Mando Rayo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, and then obviously, you know, whether you’re a vendor, you have a truck or anything like that, it’s kind of easier.

There are some, like you said, some regulations that, um. Uh, hinder kind of that process. But, uh, we’ll find a way, you know, come to my backyard, I’ll cook you up some tacos. Oh, well we weren’t talking about homemade tacos. We were

Maria Hinojosa: talking about the kind that you gotta go buy, but homemade. Yeah, no, I, I we got some serious homemade tacos for sure, for sure.

Mando Rayo: Yeah. Okay. Uh, Maria, and then also, you know, you were just in Mexico City. So tell us about that trip, what you were doing, but also tell us about, uh, this question mark around tacos that you were like, okay, we were talking back in the green room and, uh, around this. That surprised

Maria Hinojosa: you I guess? Yes. So we were in Mexico City to continue doing the reporting of um, people who have been removed or deported.

So we’ve been reporting about that in Chicago, in Los Angeles, and then we went to Mexico City. Um, we also were there to see if the president, Claudia Shane Baum would answer my question, which she did four of them, by the way. Mm-hmm. If you didn’t see it, it’s a little viral. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I’m super proud of that because I don’t even know if I could get into the White House to ask, I don’t even know if I could get into the White House period asking a question.

Um, so then I was also there, we’re doing a couple of different stories, and one of the stories which we’re doing is me documenting my. Reclaiming of my Mexican citizenship.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: So I am getting my Mexican citizenship back after, I mean, well, I mean I had to give it up in 1989, so, um, Mexico would not allow for dual citizenship mm-hmm.

When I became a US citizen. Okay. And so it has taken me about a decade just because it’s a long process and you think about it for five years before you begin the process. Mm-hmm. And then the pandemic happens, et cetera, et cetera, et. So, um, we’re documenting that. And as part of that, I was going to get my ina, which is my voter registration card, which is basically your national ID card.

Uhhuh, my colleague who’s Mexican. It was like, well, let’s go have this type of tacos. And I was like, oh my God, I’ve never had those type of tacos. And she was like, you’re not Mexican. I was like, and she was like, you’re not Mexican. Yeah, yeah. She’s like, no, no, no.

And I was like, bro, really? Like what? Do you have any idea which tacos I’m talking about?

Mando Rayo: Uh, no, I don’t. I mean, besides the, I mean there’s like the very traditional, the, the pedos obviously El Pastor Carta, Che Ma, mass, mass before nothing else. You got nothing else? Yeah. Yeah. Taco. Oh, we were just talking about that.

We were just talking about that. Yes, yes, yes. Or Taco, say, say. So you’ve never eaten them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I have, I have. And in fact, uh, Mira Manisha at you, uh, because we were just talking about, uh, the difference between the tacos por versus taco deta, you know, wait, there’s a difference. And, and yeah.

So between,

Maria Hinojosa: okay, so here’s what’s up. Here’s what’s up. Here’s what’s up. Here’s what’s up. I am very particular about my tacos, and I have been since a child Uhhuh because they were such a huge part of my life, whether they were bought on the street or mm-hmm. At home. Um, and so the fact that I had never eaten Taco, taco Deta.

Mm-hmm. Um, I know I was being shamed, but I’m not ashamed

to my lango and chilanga. Um, I get it. I would eat another one per no soan. No. Is, and that’s why like, and, and by the way, I’m prepared to have these conversations.

Speaker 4: You

Maria Hinojosa: should know that this has happened before. Okay. Because I’m so proudly Chilanga and Mexican. Yeah. That when people all the, you know, started talking about burritos and I was like, I don’t know what y’all are talking about.

I don’t eat that

hard. Shell taco shell, no, I don’t eat that stuff.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: But a sad story, but ends with a nice thing. Right. Okay. Because I came to El Paso to cover the massacre. Oh yeah. So it was horrible. Yeah. But we were looking at kind of like what provoked the massacre. And so we went to eat Christos burritos in El Paso.

Yes. Yeah. And I was like, okay, now I’m a fan. I will eat these. ‘

Mando Rayo: cause those are real burritos, you know? I mean, that’s what I, they’re not just

Maria Hinojosa: like this. So the thing about Taco Burrito, correct. So the thing about Taco SDOs is, I think the first thing that freaked me out was the name. I don’t understand sweaty tacos.

Like I just, so the name gave me a problem and then it was like tacos. And I’m like, bro, I don’t understand though. How can you have tacos in? Like, I don’t understand that. Yeah. Yeah. Like what? So I think conceptually I had never wrapped my head around it. Uh, my mom, you know, we’re gonna have a long conversation.

’cause I called her, I was like, ma, and she’s like, well, maybe. And I’m like, maybe why didn’t, why didn’t you feed me tacos? It’s your fault. You know? Yeah. Um, but so the experience of eating them in the morning Yeah. Because I know that they’re a morning thing. Yeah. They’re my analogy, the experience of eating them in that space.

Mm-hmm. You know, right there, like I’m down for the vibe. Yeah. I’m totally down for the vibe. I think what needs to happen is I need to be a little bit more particular now that I’m becoming a bit of a connoisseur, which is Okay. Don’t feel it too much for me. Yeah. Uhhuh, so that I have enough place to put the, the salsa and the uhhuh.

Um, yeah. I think that would be my biggest critique is that they were just Enos Uhhuh, um, and they were. Moist. They’re moist. Yeah, they are. They’re moist. I know, I know. I’m gonna keep on trying people. I I am going to keep on trying. Yes. I promise you that.

Mando Rayo: Yeah. You do have a couple versions where one that, where they’re moist, right?

They’re steamed and then the other one, they actually also do some, um, a some oil. Okay. So they tend to, I’m gonna keep on, so they tend to be like a little bit more, I will develop my Taco Adas etiquette and critique. Love it. Love it. Well, you know, it’s interesting because like, growing up it’s like you, you, you ate what you ate growing up.

And if you didn’t go out to eat as a kid, you know, like for me that’s, that’s kind of like how I grew up. I grew up with, you know, flour tortillas and we eat burritos, but also taquitos and, um. And, but we would hardly go out to eat. Correct. And so, so we didn’t get that influence of the different styles, you know, until later.

Later in life. Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: I mean, in the US growing up in Chicago, we didn’t go out to eat. There were two places where we went. One was Thai Sam Young, that it’s like a historical place. Og, Cantonese, Chinese food, where the owners at that time still used an abacus. That was crazy. I saw that in real life. That’s where we would go when we would go out.

Yeah. And the other place was a place called the Mexican Inn, which was so not Mexican,

Speaker 4: but my

Maria Hinojosa: parents liked to take us because it was actually Chicago Mexican food. Mm-hmm. And as kids, we liked the fact, excuse me, it was.

Encs, I don’t even know what they call it, Uhhuh, but it was yellow Uhhuh. So we know it was a problem. But as kids we thought it was cool. Yeah, we were like, oh, this is like American style American. But that was it. Like we really didn’t, oh yeah. I’m sorry. You guys, I actually have to answer this. Um, I’m sorry.

Gon just gimme a moment Please.

Also, I’ll need the, I’ll need the audio from you,

Austin.

Can you all say,

okay.

Okay. Te,

can you all say we love you, ES We love you, Reya. Will you stay? We love you too.

Oh my God.

Bye bye. Bye.

So, um. That’s why I had my phone with me. Okay. That you mind. That’s why, why I had my phone is because I, I was worried that she was gonna call. Okay. Es is, um, well, where are we? We’re in Austin. So the border of, uh, Oklahoma is what, like six hours away from here? Mm-hmm. Seven. Yeah. So she’s, um, on the border of, uh, Texas and Oklahoma in a max maximum security men’s prison is as a woman.

She’s a trans woman. Um, and we’ve been reporting exclusively on her case. If you are fans of Latino, USA, you will know this. We’ve been reporting exclusively on her case since 2017. Um, she will be getting out in July of 2026.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: And, um, she is the first person that we know of in 2017. The first person that we know of that was taken by Donald Trump’s ice and Border Patrol from a courtroom.

Hmm. Um, they took her and so that’s why I’ve been reporting on her case. And my next book is about Esra because, um, Esra, I think you heard her voice. She’s in the worst possible place. She’s in a maximum security Texas men’s prison where I am banned from visiting her by your state.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, and yet she sounded happy.

Speaker 3: Hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, and joyous. And thank you for doing that. I need the audio. Yeah, of course. Um, and so the book is basically about how the most unloved, the most hated person in our country, who’s in the most horrific situation, can teach me lessons. Of life about joy, happiness, and love. So yeah,

Mando Rayo: it’s beautiful.

Beautiful. Well, let’s, let’s, let’s explore that, you know, let’s explore this idea around where, you know, the administration say, oh, well we’re only if they, or just kind of the rhetoric, right? Oh, they gotta do it the legal way, you know, and they got, you know, we’re only going after certain people, criminals and whatever, but they’re going after anybody, you know, if you look like, like us, you know, you’re gonna get stopped.

So what, what would your response be to people that like, that have kind of, that, that idea around doing it a certain way, doing it the legal way as, as those talking points? Yeah. They kind of adopt into kind of their, in a sense, their value set, right?

Maria Hinojosa: Right. So, um, I like, you know, because I’m a frontline journalist, um, I like to base what I do on fact, right?

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: So I do tell people, can you just open your eyes? Like, do you walk around your city saying like, oh my God, these undocumented immigrants, oh my God, they’re such

criminals. Oh my God, crime is rising like crazy in Austin. You can’t go out. Oh my God. Those undocumented immigrant mass shooters.

No fucking ma.

Yeah,

Mando Rayo: no,

Maria Hinojosa: that is not true. So sorry for the F bomb, but I get very upset about these things because it is a narrative that is being told about us, and I’m gonna make this comparison and people hate it, but for the sake of pushing the envelope, another targeted people that a narrative was created about them, that made people hate them, were the Jews.

Okay.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: That’s what happened.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: And, and the person who taught me never to use the term illegal, as in illegal immigrant, illegal human being was Eli Viel, who survived the Nazis.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: And what he said to me was, you can never label a human illegal, because that is the first thing the Nazis did with the Jews.

We had, we were illegal conceptually, right? So we have to, all of us have to. Again, maybe in different tones have this conversation of, but what’s really happening? Who are we really seeing? Mm-hmm. Let’s together look at the FBI data about crime in the United States. Yeah. Let’s just spend a moment. Can we do, the problem is, is that we get to a point where somebody will say, I don’t believe the FBI data.

Mm-hmm. Well, what data do you believe? I believe whatever Donald Trump says, and we cannot, we’re at a point now where we cannot trust.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: I mean it’s, uh, it’s a horror, but that’s all part of the creation of authoritarian regimes, right. Is to take away the data or make it distrustful.

Speaker 3: Yep.

Maria Hinojosa: So that’s why Open your eyes.

What do you see? And we actually know that crime has decreased by 50, violent crime has decreased by 50% over the last. Whatever, 30 years. Mm-hmm. Um, and that undocumented immigrants are less responsible for crime in this country than more.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: So it’s, it’s, again, it’s, and I just like to say, open your eyes.

We have a real serious problem right now. Um, and Latinos and Latinas, by the way, we’re heavily targeted to be recipients of miss and disinformation.

Mando Rayo: Yep.

Maria Hinojosa: And so many of them believe this. Like,

I mean, who wants criminals? You don’t. Right? So they’re like, we don’t want criminals. And it’s like, yeah. But the problem is, is that in their eyes, you are the criminal. Yeah. If you talk like this and you’re just, I don’t want the criminals. Yeah. I don’t want them get them away from me. And I’m like, are you not this?

No. You’re not hearing yourself. You’re not seeing yourself either. You are the target. You’re not seeing, you’re not seeing yourself. So how do

Mando Rayo: we talk to our Latino family members about that

Maria Hinojosa: with, I mean, I don’t, you know. I, I just went through a situation with Una Prima in Mexico and you know who I connected with her and it was almost impossible to have a conversation with her.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: Um, and I called up mom, I was like, you know what

about the politics thing? Yeah.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: So some people.

Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: But other people, again, gently, one, I think we have to be curious, so try to listen. Mm-hmm. But then to gently say, well, can we work on, on this together? Can we understand what media literacy is when we triple check with three reputable sources?

Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, or let’s, we’re gonna have to bring it up to four or five reputable. Yeah. Um, eh, and, and we can’t give up. I think part of what’s, we’re seeing it now that, um, Latinos and Latinas are souring on Donald Trump. Um, so slowly there is a, I’m not saying that all of them, and immediately. Mm-hmm.

But there is a souring and, um, and so we have to have open lines so that people who are questioning can come back into a more normal place. ’cause what, where they’re living is completely abnormal. I’m sorry.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: The, the, the reality that they’re living. Mm-hmm. And anybody who believes that the First Amendment should be crossed at all times and that the Supreme Court should only vote in support of a president, we have much bigger issues then.

Right. But still try not, I think the essence of the work that we do at Futuro Media and Latino USA is to, frankly now combat against mis and disinformation. Yeah. I mean, yeah. We used to be just journalists and it’s like, no, now you actually are on the front lines of combating it. Right,

Mando Rayo: right, right, right.

Yeah. And you know, coming back to like, what, you know, anybody, people here, uh, people in El Paso, people in Austin, Texas, in Houston, in, in la Portland, like we, we love our tacos. Right. And we wanna support them. And that’s like at the basic level. But what can we do as like individuals? Like besides like what you just shared, is there a certain thing?

’cause when, when, when, you know, like what I’ve always said is like Ros and ROS have been there for us. They’ve been feeding our families, they’ve been helping be community hubs and place of gathering. But how can we. Be there for them?

Maria Hinojosa: Well, I think it’s a question of how you understand solidarity. Like for example, my role, um, is to be the best journalist that I can, right?

To run an independent nonprofit media company, Futuro Media. That depends on your support. Hint, hint, become, um, a member of Futuro Plus, um, so that you don’t have to hear the commercials on iHeart media, but so that’s one thing, right? Mm-hmm. We’re doing. We understand the work that we have to do and we’re doubling down and staying very focused, even though we los are coming, right?

I mean, Futuro was funded by. Uh, Mexican immigrant woman, a Mexican immigrant, uh, journalist woman who’s flat chested everything Donald Trump hates. That was a joke. You can laugh.

Speaker 4: Um,

Maria Hinojosa: so, you know, Los, we’re doubling down on what we do. My question for you, and that’s in a way my solidarity with my country, the United States of America, where my founding father of journalism of conscience is Frederick Douglass, right?

Mm-hmm. So that’s, that’s what I do. Mm-hmm. That is my solidarity. Your solidarity is something you have to spend some time thinking about. Mm-hmm. Right?

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: So it is. Like you said, well go and spend your money at the taqueria that you like, that you like, like go and spend your money there. But also you, when people are like, I dunno what to do, it’s overwhelming.

I’m like, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Right. So there are community-based organizations that have been around for a long time in a place like Austin and throughout Texas and throughout the country.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: So find those reputable community based organizations and support them by asking them what they need.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: You know, and saying, well look, I have these skills that I can donate or volunteer.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: Whatever your skills may be that you’re like, no, they don’t really need that. And you’re like, maybe they do.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: You know, maybe, maybe they do actually need a cat sitter for the office. I don’t know. In other words, um, I just think it’s important that people not feel like I have to reinvent the wheel.

Mm-hmm. Um, and I think showing up so. You know, when people say like, the only thing that’s gonna save us is community. Um, and it’s like, well, how do you measure that? And it’s like, it is hard to measure. Mm-hmm. But we also know that being in community like this Right. It’s a Monday morning early. Yeah. Y’all woke up early, put on some nice clothes.

Yeah. You made me wake up early and put on, I was gonna get better dressed for you all. Cut through Austin

Mando Rayo: traffic. Yeah.

Maria Hinojosa: I was gonna wear a really cute little black dress. Then I was like, wait, it’s Austin and it’s Monday morning. Put on, put on jeans. You’re okay. Um, so being in community, doing things to create community, I’ve held salons at my home.

Yeah. Um, just salons where it’s just like, we’re not gonna do anything. But, um, and I, and, and you know, I believe very much because my formation of, uh. Participation, participatory democracy in this country was when I still had a green card as a little girl. And going to protests to the protests in support of civil rights and black people.

And Black Lives Matter in the 1960s and Cesar Chavez and the Lord. Is that so? Um, if you can, that is part of what we do in a democracy. Oh yeah. In Mexico, I just posted it. I was like, all, yes, we are extraordinarily proud of having a woman president in Mexico. But let me tell you, people are protesting. I said, to be clear, Mexicans protest and pray every day.

You’ll see a protest in Mexico City every day and in small towns, Don, they say every day. So, um, that is civil society. That is how we participate. Yeah. Um. And I also, you know, I know that people feel overwhelmed, which is why we have to, we have to take care of ourselves, and I’m a big proponent of this.

Happy to talk about all the things that I do because I think I’ve been around long enough that I know like you cannot burn out at 25 because some version of this is gonna be around when you’re 50 or 75. And you have to have the wherewithal to be engaged with our democracy like forever. Because for us, democracy is not a given.

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Mando Rayo: For

Maria Hinojosa: me. Not being born in this country, democracy is not a given for me, uh, for the immigrants in my family, for the black people in my family. Democracy is not a given. We have to fight for it. And it’s a lifelong flight. It’s lifelong fight.

Mando Rayo: Beautiful. Beautifully said. Um, and with that I would love to, uh, get some questions from the audience.

We have, uh, some time for a couple questions.

Maria Hinojosa: Can we bring up the lights a little. Poor people.

You’re all

Mando Rayo: just shy. We have a mic right here, so don’t be afraid. Be shy. You can ask

Maria Hinojosa: me a food question too. I love, don’t like I know a lot about. Certain kinds of food, not just tacos. Yeah.

Mando Rayo: Bagels and hot dogs. Yes. And please, uh, as you come, yes. As you come up, uh, introduce yourself, tell us your name and, um, what question you have for Ms.

Maria.

Speaker 6: Good morning. Um, it’s such a pleasure to be here with all of you. Uh, I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on the parallels between what’s happening here in the United States, um, in terms of, uh, oppression and what’s happening in Palestine.

Maria Hinojosa: Do I have any thoughts?

Speaker 6: Yeah. Specifically on, on, um, the parallels in which, uh, we might both be living.

Maria Hinojosa: Yeah. Well, actually no, I cannot draw parallel. Because the people of Gaza, there is a genocide, and we know this, and it horrifies us. It is a genocide. The proof, again, United Nations genocide, historians and experts, and the numbers which are so horrific, so immigrants in the United States are not experiencing a genocide.

I, I am so profoundly interested in this connection that actually I’m making my way towards the Middle East, I’ll just say that. And part of it is to document student activism in the United States, and many of those student activists are Latino Latina. It connects with us because we understand the colonial state.

We understand. Um, and again, many of us, you know, I was obsessed with the Holocaust as a little girl. I grew up in a very Jewish community. Um, so many of us love our Jewish family and friends, but we can be critical of a Jewish state, rather the state of Israel that is practicing genocide. Um, and I think that when you see the Mexican president, Claudia Shane Baum in her declarations around GAA and Palestine, there is an understanding the,

and that is not correct. You cannot do this to a people. Um, so, uh, what we can talk about in our country are some other. Horrific terms. Mm-hmm. Right. That people get very upset when I use and I contextualize them. So we are experiencing a kind of ethnic cleansing. It’s not cleansing death. Mm-hmm. Right? So I make these very clear distinctions.

There are concentration camps in the United States. Yeah. They may not be death camps, although increasing number of people are dying in these concentration camps. Um, you are not ethnically cleansing IE mass shooting, although El Paso, you know, would qualify, Valdi would qualify. Um, but we are experiencing the absolute clarity of the message, which is if you are brown, if you are any other color than white, you are suspect.

Hmm. As per the Supreme Court basically. Um, so I, I think it’s these deep historical parallels. I think there’s also something very profound, which is we love children. Um, Mexicanos, Mexicanas, Latinos, Latinas, like, that’s part of our, like, it’s kind of how we’re raised and to see the level of suffering of children, uh, children who, you know, Mexico, they think they’re Mexican kids, right?

They look like us. Um, and so it is, you know, and I see it in my own family. My daughter will not stop. This is her issue. Um, and, and I look at her and I’m like, so I think it just goes very deep and very profound and I, I can’t wait for this horror to end. Thank you. Thank you for the question.

Mando Rayo: Yeah. Thank you.

Who would like to follow that up? I know. Um, hi, my, yeah. Tell us your name. My name is

Speaker 7: Juan Torres. I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. But, um, my whole family is San um, you know, and I grew up in a K through 12 system in San Antonio that was 98% Mexican American, but it was third, fourth, fifth generation Mexican American.

So I was bullied as the other by my Mexican peers. Right. And, um, I was called a wetback by a kid that looked just like me. Mm-hmm. Um, that felt that even if their last name was Rodriguez, they were American first, I was Mexican. And it’s taken me, you know, 30 something years to, um, come to a, a sense of strength and love for who I am as a Mexican, uh, American in Texas.

But it also, uh, I guess kind of frustrates me now that. If we had listened to kids like me in K to 12, because the rhetoric that those kids, my peers, were spewing at me is the rhetoric that we see nationally, um, elevating this presidency. Um, it is the, the rhetoric of those kids in my K to 12 system that is leading to Mexican American ice agents taking our people.

Um, we could have perhaps shifted some, um, perhaps shifted some of our circumstances. And so I guess I would like to ask you, with all your journalism and all your research, what do you see our role being now, um, with Mexican Americans in Texas who still believe they’re American first, Mexican second, but are being terrorized whether they’ve recognized it or not, by that same government that they pledge allegiance?

Maria Hinojosa: Thank you for your question. Um, I really appreciate that and I’m sorry you were bullied. Um, you’re much cuter than him. Um, so we all grew up, I assume many of us in this room and maybe many listening with a saying that is, um, we just heard it, we may not have understood it, is, uh, right. We have to make our race better and the code was marry somebody white, uh, to make our race better.

So they have internalized your friends, right? The second and third and fourth generation Mexicanos from here have internalized that from Mexico and the messaging from the United States, which is telling us that white is. Powerful. White is respect. Why I’m not like, like I’m not making stuff up. Like in Texas, how many statues do you have of Mexicanos?

Okay, men, Mexican men, I’ll even give you that. Forget mexicanas. So E everywhere. White men are celebrated, right? And so Mocho, right? Look at Donald Trump. And they’re like, but we wanna be that. It is, when I wrote an essay about this, people came after me, you know, they were just like, why are you saying this?

And it’s like, was, I don’t wanna say it, but, and it’s very complicated. And, and I speak again from things that I have heard where I have my students. ’cause I’m Mexican, I have 16 jobs. So I also am a professor. Um, and my students who will, um, who will kind of reveal in the process of doing our work on identity, that they look at themselves in the mirror and they don’t see a brown woman.

And she’s like, no, but I’m, but I don’t really look Mexican.

Speaker 3: And

Maria Hinojosa: I’m like, bro, wow.

So there was no fault, right? It was a dialogue. It was like, well, but, and then it was her revelation of like, wow, I actually have been telling myself this and I experienced it too. Right. We all do. Right? Because we live in a country that sadly like to get really graphic about it.

So, you know, there is white supremacy historically in this country, by the way. That means Mexico. Look at the, in Mexico. Mm-hmm. Please, let’s be clear like that is what you are going for. Um, now we have a president of Mexico who is, you know. 2025. Mm-hmm. Uh, whether or not Las Mure are actually like, internalizing that into and with support of owning their power, I think, you know, is, but at least I’ll take performative, right?

It’s like we’re gonna celebrate her here, right here every morning at the ra. It’s gonna be 20, 25 year of indigenous women. Um, you know, it might help actually if they actually showed the faces of indigenous women so that the women who are watching the RA could see, could see themselves. Uh, so I think that this is where again, you know, everything is unfolding as we speak.

This horror. It’s, it’s, it can get worse. I mean, we saw full blown military scale, um, invasion in downtown Chicago yesterday in my city, straight up. So se, but. Uh, we can’t go much farther right than this. And I think that, you know, the pendulum of Amer of American history means that we’re gonna end up over here.

And the question then is how you are, are gonna be a part of that conversation. Mm-hmm. Right? So what does a different kind of Latino and Latina power look like? Um, and, and you know, if you can, like I be, for some people they, yeah. They are gonna, they are Mexican tota forever and ever, or, and I have them in my family, ato.

Yeah. So it’s not like I don’t, um, but also this country has made history. This country is a country of rebel history. You know, again, I think of Frederick Douglass first black man, freed black man to, um. Own his own press and newspaper called the North Star. It’s a rebel country. There has always been the pushing against, and so that’s where, that’s part of what we’re doing.

Right. Something else, Mexican phrase that I love and is my favorite, which is

there is no bad from which good cannot come. Something good has got to come after all of this horror, and I’m really putting it on you to help build it.

Mando Rayo: Well, with that, thank you so much for the conversation. Nobody wants

Maria Hinojosa: to know what food I travel with.

Mando Rayo: Yeah. There you go. Come, come. There you go. No, it’s not a burrito. All

Speaker 8: so many incredible things are happening right now in our community, especially how we’re transforming Mexican food and some people, oh, that’s not authentic.

Uh oh. What are they doing? They’re changing their foods. It’s like, how can we transform something so simple to distill something so sophisticated? But then at the same time, I’m also curious, what would you eat? What is your, what is your like. Go to breakfast and some dinner fries. Perfect day of something that is authentic.

Maria Hinojosa: Wait, and I’m not gonna gain any, any weight. I know. So no weight gain at all? No.

Speaker 3: That makes it worse. When I gain weight,

Maria Hinojosa: it means that much more because I’m so small. But you’re saying like in a perfect world with no breakfast, lunch, and dinner,

Speaker 8: describe to us. Your perfect day, you’re perfect food. And it could be anything as chi calories don’t count.

The hot calories don’t count. Said you are from

Maria Hinojosa: Chicago. Alright. Alright. Let me go through a few. So first of all, the food that I travel with, just so you know, is I have a bag of popcorn this big that I bake, bake that I fry, I fry that I pop, that I pop myself. This big Ziploc, this big, I travel with it until like I’m gonna finish the one that I have.

And I’ve been on the road for like almost a week. I keep it fresh, don’t worry. Um, and dark chocolate. So that’s like my, that’s what keeps me. Like I put

Mando Rayo: that without knowing. Actually no, you didn’t know. I put that, bro. You saved me last night. I told pop water. Someone was helping you, right? Yeah, but I told him get dark chocolate and popcorn and fizzy water.

You, you must have known. No, I didn’t. Well, okay. You knew about the popcorn. Raul told me about the popcorn. Yeah, right. But dark chocolate, you gotta have dark chocolate. You gotta, yeah. That was good. Thank you.

Maria Hinojosa: You saved me last night. It’s right there by my bedside. Um, alright, so the perfect day, I did just have breakfast at Elena in Mexico City.

If you don’t know, so, and this would not be typical, like this is just one day, this is not every day. It’s one day I would have, and I’m not a fan of es because too often es are too dry.

I, I, and I didn’t need the full one. Like my niece got it and I was like, and then I was like, oh God, I’m dying. Okay. Um, I would have, uh, the chilaquiles made by my prima for breakfast when I had breakfast in. In familia de, you know, with my 99-year-old Dia Gloria, um, she made man es es which is interesting.

You know, ES uh, no, I, like, for me, when I make my chilaquiles, they’re crunchy.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Maria Hinojosa: But these were not, and I was totally down with it. Perfect. Um, a for lunch, uh, but so not lunch. Mexican style la comida. I was lucky enough to be served Chiles and noga.

Speaker 4: Mm.

Maria Hinojosa: And these are the best chiles and noga I have ever had in my life.

They were made by primo. Oh my God. Like, whoa. Like I don’t dream about chiles and noga. Like, I’m not like, oh my God, I gotta go. But. I will go back to his house to have her chilies and noga. Nothing. They were, it was crunchy el chilies. Oh wow. So she does not deep fry them. Okay. Mu deep fry. She doesn’t, yeah.

I don’t know what she did. Oh. And then for dinner I would have taco spas with muta. Mita is the right there on the grill. Um, guacamole. Oyo, huge guacamole. And then let’s just say that we would go out, you know, and dance, let’s just say. And there was no weight gaining problem. I would have some pupusas before I went to school.

Mando Rayo: Ah,

nice. That’s beautiful. Hey, well you know what, I’m so

Maria Hinojosa: hungry now, and now we’re all

Mando Rayo: hungry. The good thing is we, we we’re going to, uh, Vera phone that for lunch, so I think you’re gonna like it. Uh, well, Maria, thank you so much for the conversation and just kind of sharing your life experience and, and, and just also just advice of what we can all do, you know, in our communities.

’cause change happens, you know, it’s after you walk out that doors that. That door, one door, but change happens right here. So with that, thank you so much. Uh, please help me give, uh, a round of applause. Thank you, Mando. Thank you.

Maria Hinojosa: Thank you, Austin. Thank you. KUT. Don’t forget, this is where Latino USA was once distributed.

I don’t see any Latino USA posters on the walls here at KUT. Let’s go. Come on. Let’s, I’m just shaming you a little bit. K. Uts. You should be proud. We’ve won the Peabody.

Mando Rayo: Just saying thank you all. Appreciate you. This has been the Tackles of Texas podcast developed and produced by Identity Productions. If you enjoyed today’s episode and now craving more tackle content, go to our website at www dot identity productions or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Identity Productions and United Tacos of America.

This is your. Mando El Taco, journalist Rao Vamos Tacos.

Louisa Van Assche : The Tacos of Texas podcast is presented by identity Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX studios. Our host and producer is Mando Rao. Our audio is mixed by Nicholas Weden. Our story producer is me, Louisa Van, and our creative producer is Dennis Burnett. Music was created by OSA in Austin, Texas, and King Benny Productions located in the Quinto Barrio of Houston.