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Speaker 1: How many taco editors are there in the United States

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Speaker 1: of America.

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Speaker 2: Technically just me.

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Speaker 1: From Futuro Media. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria Ino Josa

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Speaker 1: Poserralat has the kind of job that some foodies dream about.

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Speaker 1: He's the taco editor at Texas Monthly magazine. Ralat also

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Speaker 1: has a new book out. It's called American Dacos, a

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Speaker 1: History and Guide. The book dives into the evolution of

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Speaker 1: dacos in the United States and their history in the Borderlands.

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Speaker 1: When we think of tacos, we usually think of them

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Speaker 1: as a distinctly Mexican food, but according to Ralat, he

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Speaker 1: says that's only half of the story. Tacos are also

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Speaker 1: as American as apple. He says, from the breakfast kind

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Speaker 1: to the puffy shell kind. The variety of dacos that

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Speaker 1: have sprung up in different regions of the United States

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Speaker 1: show that this is also a distinctly American food. But

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Speaker 1: the rising popularity of dacos in the United States has

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Speaker 1: well made a lot of US connoisseurs. In fact, TV

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Speaker 1: shows like Netflix Doaco Chronicles have given a different light

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Speaker 1: to this simple, yet so complex of a dish. Last year,

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Speaker 1: Basketball Superstar Lebron James went viral when he embraced tacos

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Speaker 1: by posting videos of himself eating them enthusiastically while stereotypically

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Speaker 1: saying the phrase.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: According to Ralat, tacos have been here long before the hype.

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Speaker 1: They were introduced to the United States around the same

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Speaker 1: time as the American burger was invented. In his book,

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Speaker 1: Ralat discusses the importance of documenting the history of docas

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Speaker 1: in the United States, and he joins me today to

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Speaker 1: talk about their unique identity north of the border. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to let you know, USA.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me to.

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Speaker 1: Be like the one and only standing official doco editor

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Speaker 1: of the United States of America. That's a big deal. Congratulations,

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Speaker 1: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: It's it's an honor that I don't take lightly because

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Speaker 2: I have the responsibility of not just for writing about

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Speaker 2: the food, but writing about the people. And I think

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Speaker 2: that's really the most critical part of the job.

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Speaker 1: Before we continue, people might be saying, wait, what's going on,

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Speaker 1: and so you're very open about the fact that you stutter.

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Speaker 1: It is something that happens, and so we might as

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Speaker 1: well just say, hey, it happens, and you're you're cool

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Speaker 1: with basically saying yeah and moving on right.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I am thank you. Yes, It's a part of

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Speaker 2: my life, and it's never stopped me from doing things

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Speaker 2: like live TV or radio segments.

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Speaker 1: I love that, I gotta say, I really do. I

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Speaker 1: completely love that. So what you may not know is

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Speaker 1: that I've been a taco fanatic since probably before you

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Speaker 1: were even born. I'm Mexican. I grew up with this stuff,

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Speaker 1: you know. I mean, my mom made that goes. Alita

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Speaker 1: made that goes. But you're Puerto Rican. You weren't growing

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Speaker 1: up with this stuff. So what's the story as to

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Speaker 1: why this Puerto Rican dude ends up falling in love

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Speaker 1: with docos?

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Speaker 2: Growing up in the States. I knew about docos generally

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Speaker 2: speaking as a fast food product, but doc was as

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Speaker 2: a Mexican food item. Wasn't Brooklyn from It a chicana?

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Speaker 2: And I don't know who I fell in love with first,

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Speaker 2: the woman or the food.

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Speaker 1: So before we get to talking about tacos, which again

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Speaker 1: we could talk about forever, one of the things that

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Speaker 1: stood out to us is from the beginning of your book,

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Speaker 1: and this is where you refer to something you call

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Speaker 1: the Abualita principle and having just mastered, Jose, You'll be

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Speaker 1: proud of me finally having just mastered my abulita, Like

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Speaker 1: I finally figured it out. I'm just like, oh my god,

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Speaker 1: I can't believe it. I unlocked it. What is this

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Speaker 1: thing about the abuelita principle when it applies to tacos?

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Speaker 2: So whenever people talk about Mexican food, eventually the conversation

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Speaker 2: rolls around two, Well, Maya Wilita made the best Mexican food.

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Speaker 2: She made the best gizos, Her lingua was the best,

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Speaker 2: or her molley was the best, and for them, that's

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Speaker 2: as far as Mexican food goes. Nothing else counts as Mexican,

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Speaker 2: which is unfortunate because Mexico is a large country with

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Speaker 2: microregions and different cuisines. It's not that simple. We shouldn't

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Speaker 2: box it in. Boxing it in is misguided at best

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Speaker 2: and racist at worst. Uh could also be maybe so

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Speaker 2: and so's grandmother wasn't a good cook. I know that's sacrilegious.

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Speaker 2: I know it's sacrilegious. Okay, but my grandmother was a

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Speaker 2: terrible cook too.

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Speaker 1: And he takes down at what he does as well.

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Speaker 2: Not everyone can cook.

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Speaker 1: You know this notion of like when people get that

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Speaker 1: hard taco shell and you know, people kind of eating

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Speaker 1: it and he's always falling apart in your hands. I

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Speaker 1: was like, do you guys don't understand? And I always

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Speaker 1: was concerned about the American taco, like, is this a

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Speaker 1: problem basically that the hardshell doaco is the American taco?

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Speaker 1: Is is it the American taco? Or am I really

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Speaker 1: being dismissive of you know, commercialized American tacos and I'm

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Speaker 1: being again a taco elitist and that there is actually

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Speaker 1: an extraordinary experience of an American tacle.

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Speaker 2: It certainly is the most iconic American taco. It's also

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Speaker 2: a gateway taco for people, hopefully these other people to

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Speaker 2: try other tacos. But you know, let's face it, Taco

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Speaker 2: bell is historically significant. It helped popularize the taco. It

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Speaker 2: was a gateway taco. And with that and I probably

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Speaker 2: would and have this job.

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Speaker 1: And you know what you've also got like, for example,

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Speaker 1: the last time that I was in Miami, I don't

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Speaker 1: know where I ended up, but oh my god, I

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Speaker 1: was eating some daco fusion that was like knocking my

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Speaker 1: socks off. And again you write about kosher tacos. You

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Speaker 1: write about West Indian tacos, you write about Korean tacos.

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Speaker 1: So what is all of this in your view in

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Speaker 1: this moment, No matter what you know, no matter what

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Speaker 1: people are saying about Mexicans and what we represent, what

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Speaker 1: in fact does the reality of tacos in our food

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Speaker 1: in the United States say about the integration of tacos

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Speaker 1: as a mainstream food.

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Speaker 2: It says a lot. Hey, daco is a reflection of

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Speaker 2: its time and place. It is created from populationshifts, and

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Speaker 2: the people who make it. For example, KMX in the nineties,

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Speaker 2: you had this huge wave of immigration from Korea and

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Speaker 2: they settled in southern California next to Mexicans. And what happened?

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Speaker 2: These people traded ingredients.

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Speaker 1: What do you think is next for the taco? I mean,

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Speaker 1: is there a frontier? Is there a border? Is there

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Speaker 1: a border wall that the taco is going to crash through?

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Speaker 1: Can it evolve further?

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Speaker 2: Yes? And I've often said that eventually everything makes its

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Speaker 2: way into a tortilla. But then I encountered this Flan

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Speaker 2: taco and I looked at it and I said, that's

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Speaker 2: not what I meant. This is. I did not consider

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Speaker 2: Flann as making its way into a tortilla.

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Speaker 1: Should I be horrified or excited about this?

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Speaker 2: Will say, oh, excited because it's so delicious. It was

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Speaker 2: mind blowing because I never imagined that this was possible,

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Speaker 2: but it worked. It worked so well. I went back

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Speaker 2: for thirds.

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Speaker 1: I'm kind of feeling it, you know, I'm definitely I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, maybe I could try to make that at home,

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Speaker 1: but maybe not. But it's intriguing. So look, the truth

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Speaker 1: is is that right now the whole world is living

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Speaker 1: through the COVID nineteen pandemic. You know, what are your

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Speaker 1: concerns about, you know, tacos and making it through this

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Speaker 1: pandemic make and what we might lose or gain because

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Speaker 1: of this moment that we're living through.

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Speaker 2: So I think that that the that will survive and

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Speaker 2: thrive once more. I think that ideas are uniquely positioned

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Speaker 2: because that they are usually family owned, small operations that

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Speaker 2: can adapt quickly to their customers' needs. I think that

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Speaker 2: Mexican food as a whole is unstoppable. Mexican food always wins.

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Speaker 1: Not that there was a fight or anything going on,

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Speaker 1: but you just declared Mexican food always wins.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, Well, because it'll come back. These businesses will

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Speaker 2: come back. As long as the landlords are flexible, we

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Speaker 2: should get almost everyone back. At least that's what I

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Speaker 2: hope and that's what I believe.

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Speaker 1: Thank you Jose for sharing your tacos stories and taco

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Speaker 1: love affair with us. We really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Maria, this has been an honor.

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Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Juande Ramirez and edited by

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Speaker 1: Luis Trees. The Latino USA team includes Miel Massias, Sofia Parisaka,

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Speaker 1: Jane Yamoca, Rueta Martinelli, alissaes Carce, and Alexandra Salasad with

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Speaker 1: help from own Is. Our engineers are Stephanie Lebou, Julia Caruso,

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Speaker 1: and Leah Shaw. Our director of programming and Operations is

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Speaker 1: Natalia Fidehotz. Our digital editor Isamandel Cantra. Our New York

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Speaker 1: Women's Foundation Ignite fellow is Julia Rocha. Our interns are

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Speaker 1: Sophia Sanchez and Marie Mendosa. Our theme music was composed

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Speaker 1: by Segne Robinos. If you like the music you heard

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Speaker 1: on this episode, dot by Latinousa dot org and check

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Speaker 1: out our weekly Spotify playlist. I'm your host and Executive

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Speaker 1: producer Marienno Josa join us on our next episode, and

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Speaker 1: in the meantime, look for us on all of your

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Speaker 1: social media pastor Approxima Jao.

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Speaker 3: Latino USA is made possible in part by W. K.

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Speaker 3: Kellogg Foundation, a partner with communities where children come first.

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Speaker 3: The Annie Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the

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Speaker 3: nation's children by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, and

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Speaker 3: transforming communities and funding for Latino USA is Coverage of

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Speaker 3: a culture of health is made possible in part by

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Speaker 3: a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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Speaker 1: Taco Snob No, I know the worst, the worst