Taco Mafia

- Maz Dulce maz Abundado Listo pa' la tierra cultivar Maz Dulce raz -Alright.

Texas Winter storm.

A beautiful tale to tell.

Our wonderful state grid gave out on us, which is totally fine and very cool.

-I had booked a hotel at the Austin Proper for Valentine's Day, like, months in advance.

I brought my girlfriend there, and we were celebrating Valentine's Day.

We knew it was going to get cold.

There was rumors of it snowing.

We look out the window and it's just dumping snow.

-At this point, I've never seen snow in my life and I'm like, "Oh, God, this is awesome.

This is so cool."

I go out my door.

I'm all covered up.

I'm walking down Congress.

I'm like, "This is the greatest night ever."

-That, you know, born and raised here my whole life, I've never gone through something like that.

I don't know where.

It just didn't stop and kept coming even more.

Obviously, the biggest thing is the power went out for everyone.

[ Light switch clicking ] At that point, nobody could do anything.

-We didn't know that the power was gone because it didn't lose power at the hotel.

When we leave the next day, there's like wreck after wreck after wreck, people rolling down the hill.

And I was like, "Damn, this is a lot crazier than I thought."

As soon as he drops me off at my house, I go inside.

Power's out and it was freezing in there.

-I remember waking up and I look out the window and there's all this snow and I could see my breath in the house.

I was so, so cold.

Look at the thermostat.

It's under 40 degrees in there.

-I'm, like, covering, like, under my bed with, like, my dog.

I thought I was going to love it out here.

It was, like -- -So funny.

The change of tone the next day, it was like...

I was like, "What happened, bro?

You making snow angels?

He's like, "No."

-Like, didn't -- Your power didn't go out?

Oh, no.

-My power went out.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-But I had a Jeep so I could -- I was trucking through the snow.

I was having a great time.

-Say cheese.

-Cheese.

-[ Laughs ] -We have a wonderful day.

We get back.

We're like, "We're sure the power will come back on."

So we go to sleep.

And then I notice it's still cold.

And I have this, like, image of the Titanic where I, like, am imagining I was just freezing to death, cuddling in our beds.

And I'm like, "Edgar, wake up.

We have to go find shelter."

So we call up Anthony.

-My girlfriend at the time, she lives next to the fire station, so her power was on.

I was like, "She has power.

We can go stay at her house.

She said that you and Sara can come over."

-Go to their place.

It's warm, it's nice.

And there is no updates.

There's no updates on when power is coming back.

-And we started realizing that there's so many people without power that have no access to the grocery store, no access to leave their place, and there's no answers.

We need to just, like, go to the restaurant and cook all the food that we have before it goes bad and, like, let's see if anyone needs food.

-Cold in here.

-Dude, I know.

-I got a call from Tony saying, "We're going to put all of our inventory together and take over Nixta and just start cooking it."

-We have all of this stuff at our restaurants.

We don't need electricity necessarily, so we just kind of pooled all of our stuff together.

-We all took all of our things, met up the next day at Nixta.

-It was cold in the building.

We had just head lamps.

-Head lamps.

We out here, get some stuff ready for y'all.

Stay tuned.

-A little duck fasole.

-So we went there and we grabbed some carnitas and we made duck fasole.

-We put out a thing on Instagram.

We were like, "Hey, we're going to be cooking all this food in our fridges.

We're going to try and clear out what we can and just make something else for y'all.

Pull up."

I remember I popped my head outside and there was a massive line.

-We did what we know to do and that's just cook.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -We did probably like 600 or 700 portions.

Gone in under an hour.

Like, everyone and their moms, like, coming through.

-And then the word started getting around, started talking to all of our chef friends, like, "Come on, bring some product, help us cook.

We need some hands."

-Yo, yo, yo.

Got that chili dog.

-Pizza Tony came over.

-Nick.

-Nick from Trill at the time.

[ Laughter ] -Not only us from Taco Mafia but, you know, everybody that was able to get to us and lend us some hands was there.

-The next day we're on the, like, Washington Post.

And then it started kind of spreading.

It kind of, no pun intended, snowballed into something much bigger than us, where everybody was getting involved in their own way.

-I was just mobilizing all the messages that were coming through and, like, organizing it by, like, needs and donations.

[ Indistinct conversations, music playing ] -You know, we had people all over offering to donate money to us, to be able to buy more product, to be able to serve more food.

-I reached out to a bunch of my purveyors because I knew that a lot of them didn't have refrigeration.

So I was like, "Hey, what are y'all doing with all that produce that's eventually going to go in the trash?"

-There was a lot of people involved and they're all just down to get down.

[ Laughter ] -Whether it was like musicians, like TheBrosFresh or to, like, someone like Yoga with Adriene.

-As soon as the sun came out and I saw that there was a food activation, I was like, "I'm there."

We were so eager and ready to be of service and not because that's what we thought we should do.

It was a real feeling that could not be stopped.

-She didn't tell me anything about her.

Like, I was just like, "Yeah, scoop chili for the next like six hours."

And she was down.

-So much oral care.

There's a lot.

-Oral care.

-We got involved with Tankproof, Relief Gang, stuff like that, where they were setting up, like, drop-off points for not just food, but, like, you know, feminine hygiene products, like personal protection gear.

It was still very much COVID at that time.

Toilet paper, dry goods, baby formula, all that.

It just became this hub.

-It humbled all of us.

With what little we had and more resources coming together, we were able to help out as many folks as we could.

-Carnitas.

[ Whistles ] -By that last day, we had over 100-plus volunteers show up.

We probably cooked for like 2,500 or 3,000 people alone in that one day.

People knew at that moment in the city who the Taco Mafia was.

I took a step back and was just like in awe.

I've cooked for Jay-Z, I've cooked for Beyonc.

I've cooked for President Obama.

None of that mattered to me more than that day in particular.

-Whoo!

Edgar!

-I think in total, all said and done, it was 7,000, 8,000 meals, I would say.

-That experience showed that mobilization can happen so quickly.

There's a crew of people who want to do whatever they can to help.

-When it comes down to something so simple as this food is going to waste, let's cook it and give it away.

And what are you doing right now?

You cook, right?

Get over here.

Let's cook.

I mean, how do you not love that?

-It's just like something that they knew that the neighbors need, especially knowing where -- where they are.

They have food.

They have the willingness to do something... and they just do it.

-Those are the philanthropists that I'm most attracted to.

It's not just the, you know, Warren Buffetts of the world, but it's the people that may not even have that much to give, but they're giving all of it.

-For somebody to put the needs of the community before their own safety, that speaks volumes of how much somebody cares.

I really think they -- Like, "helped" is almost like an understatement.

Like, pretty much saved, you know, a lot of people in the community.

-The Taco Mafia in that week showed the best of what we've got in Austin.

The entire state was without power.

The entire state was without water, and the city was not prepared.

-I do love Austin.

I love living here, but that really scared me, showing, like, if you're not fortunate enough to be in certain positions, you're kind of left behind.

-The government, they didn't prioritize certain people.

People across the street from Nixta didn't have power for almost three months.

-We were still doing things post-Texas-freeze for our neighbors.

-The fact that it was small businesses being together and not a city with major funding was ridiculous.

-You live in a first-world country, in the capital of the state, and we're having these issues.

It's a falta de respeto.

It's like a lack of respect.

-If you wait for the city of Austin to do something for you, you're going to wait a long time, as you know.

Right?

And so what can people do?

-The fastest assistance comes at the community level.

-My first reaction is not like, "The government's got my back."

We've got each other's backs.

-It's the people that are within your neighborhood or it's the people that are next door.

Those are the people that are going to have your back.

I would like to leave a legacy knowing that I tried my best.

I helped out who I could.

I didn't get taken advantage of, but I left the world and the food scene a better place than when I entered.

You got to uplift the people around you doing the same things as you because without that, there's really nothing to fall back on.

You know, look at our truck getting crashed into, for instance.

We had this whole community uplift us back to be even stronger.

And I don't know if that would have happened if we didn't have that mind-set of the willingness to help others without anything in return.

-La parte ms grande que voy a dejar es la receta de mi pap.

Eso s me encanta.

Ms que eso, cmo afect eso a una ciudad como esta.

O sea, yo ya no puedo decir que la discada es nada ms ma y de mi familia -- tambin es de esta ciudad.

Como persona, me gustara que me recordaran como alguien que te ayuda si lo necesitas.

He aprendido muchas cosas de toda esta gente y me gustara que al fin, si me voy, que la gente vea un poquito de todos ellos dentro de m.

-So what I said, just in Spanish.

No, I'm kidding.

[ Both laugh ] -Better.

Better.

Me gustara que la gente viera un poco el mundo como lo veo yo, que es un poquito diferente porque vengo de otro lado.

Meeting Greg Casar was cool.

It's very interesting.

Ahora s, mira.

-Cmo estamos?

-Pues unas 12, creo.

-12?

-12.

-Vienen por platos de 3, 5 y 8.

Quieres el de --?

-Entonces cuatro.

-Te sale ms bara de 3 y -- -Cuatro de 3.

-Cuatro de 3?

Ya qued.

-Okay.

Listo, "man".

-Con cebolla, cilantro y...?

-I'm Greg Casar, and I'm the new member of Congress for East Austin, all the way down to the west side of downtown of San Antonio.

When we talk about Austin, we show off our music and our food.

And so much of that has been built by communities of color and by immigrants.

But then we don't always and oftentimes don't pass policies that actually respect that work.

We need to pay that work.

We need to support that work.

We need to support our restaurant workers.

We need to support our small businesses and not just the biggest corporations.

And we need to recognize that so many of these immigrants ultimately are citizens, regardless of whether the government recognizes them as citizens or not.

-Listo, "man".

-Aqu estamos.

-Gracias.

Ay, de todo lo rico.

-Provechito, provechito.

-S te vas a sentar a --?

-S, claro que s.

-And so I don't talk so much about granting people a pathway to citizenship.

I talk more about recognizing people's inherent citizenship because they're a part of our community as much as anybody else.

I mean, you're talking about the people that we highlight the most in this community not having some of their most basic rights protected to know that tomorrow and the next day that if they've got a sick family member in another country, they're going to be able to go and visit them, if they have a funeral they've got to go to, they're not denied going to that funeral.

These are the sorts of things that people in our community experience every single day.

And even despite all of that, they're still giving.

When there's a winter storm, they're still feeding 8,000 people.

What ends up happening in our federal politics is that people are demonized because they're treated theoretically.

Hay grupos de gente en los medios y las corporaciones y los polticos que ellos -- a final de cuenta hay una ganancia para ellos crear una mentira de cul es la comunidad inmigrante dentro de una ley que est rota desde el mero principio.

-S.

-Imagnate que si noms -- en vez de tener discriminacin, que todos tendran igual acceso a prstamos, igual acceso a la educacin, igual acceso a todos... -Es bueno para todos.

Es bueno para todos.

Es bueno para la economa.

Es bueno para -- Es ms -- -Y bueno para nuestras panzas tambin, verdad?

-S.

Para la comunidad.

Me entiendes?

O sea, el sentirte parte de tu comunidad es muy importante.

Y sentir que ests ayudando, o sea, que ests proporcionando algo.

Y si no lo ests haciendo, es as como que -- Ests gastando una oportunidad buena.

-Gracias.

Gracias.

-If you're able to take care of who is around us, then they will be able to take care of us later on, down the road.

And actions speak louder than words.

Buenas, cmo est?

-Hola, buenas.

Qu tal?

-Va a ser para aqu, verdad?

-S, por favor.

-A nombre de quin les pongo su orden?

-Beto.

Jose just kind of picked up everything that I was teaching him from, you know, starting the business and getting that all going.

But so much time has gone by now and so many things have happened.

And, you know, going back to the beginning of how whenever we were building the truck, he was there.

Whenever we barely opened, he was there.

Even through, you know, all these difficult times, he has stepped up.

I went in with the intentions of letting Jose know that, you know, we're making him a partner with the company.

I wanted him to know and understand that I'm beyond appreciative of everything he's done.

It's time you get your due, what you deserve.

-When you were out for your surgery, I didn't know how I was going to move forward or how to move forward.

-Opportunities like that will either make or break somebody.

But, like, it didn't break you, so... -I never thought that I'd be in the position I am now.

It's still kind of like this happened, you know.

It's wild.

It's wild to think that we've come this far and we are where we are.

Like, we're just some kids from North Austin.

-They might want to -- -My hope when we opened Nixta was to just make the best neighborhood restaurant that we could.

There was no like, "I'm going to win Best New Chef in America.

I'm going to win the restaurant of the year from Eater, we're going to win Food & Wine's Best new Restaurant" or like a James Beard Award.

[ Applause ] Getting nominated for a James Beard Award, winning the Foundational Awards for Emerging Chef.

-And the award goes to Edgar Rico.

[ Cheers and applause ] To have been the first ever in the history of the Foundation to have won it with tacos?

This is no longer just like a small neighborhood project.

[ Cheers and applause continue ] -Hearing his name, I was like...

It was so -- It was wild.

-I look over.

His parents are bawling, Sarah's bawling.

I'm bawling.

-Honest to God, I did not expect to award -- expect to win this award tonight, but it's been a trial to get here.

I just started speaking words.

I don't remember the speech at all, but everyone was like, "You did a great speech."

But to be here amongst all y'all tonight, this is huge.

This is huge for la raza.

This is huge for my people.

[ Cheers and applause ] For all the taqueros out there in the world, anything is possible.

-But he, like, mentioned the taqueros and all that.

Dude, that's cool, like, some guy doing what we're doing... -Anything is possible.

-...managed to -- yeah, managed to get to that stage.

That's a big achievement.

-Thank you to my fiance who is my partner in this restaurant.

My parents who are immigrants that immigrated to this country to come here.

[ Cheers and applause ] Thank you.

-Fue muy emocionante.

Yo estaba gritando, llorando.

Y eso -- Pues nos sentimos muy orgullosos de l.

-Everything that they win, it's well-deserved.

And it just makes me so happy just to see.

-Them just naturally doing what they know to do, it's going to continue to give them more of what they've already been receiving.

-I was always worried.

I said, "You're going to Austin.

You have nobody, you know.

How are you going to do it?"

She said, "Grandmom, don't worry about me.

I can find friends, you know?"

Now everybody said life in Austin without Sara is not the same.

-[ Laughs ] -Beto is the most reliable and dependable person that you'll probably ever meet.

-I've tried a lot of tacos throughout the country, and he truly does make some of the best tacos, I think, in America.

Whatever his dream is and his goal, he's going to make it happen.

-To me, Beto's one of a kind.

He's the definition of no excuses.

For someone like him to overcome challenges, I think he's one of the bravest, strongest people I've ever met.

There's a reason why he is where he is.

It's not luck.

It's not... -It's calculated.

He has every every excuse in the book to, like, not succeed.

And he's the first one to, like, get up and go there.

-I never thought that something like this would be happening to someone like me, getting recognition that we got Restaurant of the Year and the magazines that get written about us and so forth.

That saying of people don't get the roses while they can still smell them, to be able to see and hear those things, that means a lot.

That's not what we do it for, but it just adds more fuel to the fire to want to do more.

Anthony and Xose -- they are the energy of the group.

They're truly, like, synced in and are just about to take the next step.

-They've been through a lot and they've been friends forever.

What they've created together is really special in the city.

-Yo la verdad estoy muy orgullosa.

Te digo, me gusta que est creciendo y que en todos lados lo conozcan.

-I don't know.

The recognition, I don't really -- I don't really think about it.

They say, "Cool.

Does it feel great?"

It does.

But it was just kind of like -- it's about sharing what we were doing.

-Hey!

-It's really hard to, like, slow down and look at your reflection sometimes.

And we are, like, becoming recognized, well-known and respected in this community.

And it feels great.

I just want to keep doing better.

[ Indistinct conversations ] With the Taco Mafia, things are infinitely better than if we didn't have them.

Knowing Beto, Edgar, and Sara has allowed us to level up business-wise, but also in our personal lives.

-We might have something better for you to use than that.

-Lo que fue el Taco Mafia para m fue tener ese grupo de gente con la que estoy muy cercano y que me siento cmodo y se volvieron mi familia aqu en Austin.

-The Taco Mafia means a real recognition of the evolution of a food scene in a city.

It brings me to a moment where you're like, you're witnessing something here.

We're lucky to have these people here feeding us.

-It's a whole new day here in Austin, Texas.

And the ones that are here, we're building it up and we're making this city a better place.

-What the Taco Mafia helps build is a place for community and a place of enjoyment and something that we can be proud of that makes folks want to stick it out in Austin.

It's not just tacos.

It's really something that brings us together.

It makes us proud to be Austinites.

-That sense of community is what is moving the scene here forward.

It makes Austin worth taking seriously as a taco place.

-To me, the Taco Mafia is like a little bit of a revolution, if you will, to create this culinary force of damn good comida.

-Those beautiful people that make up the Taco Mafia showed us that we all have the power to create something really meaningful.

-The more the Taco Mafia does the important work of humanizing the Latino and immigrant community here, I think that can change the politics for the country.

T a m me quieres y yo te quiero La puerta negra sale sobrando -Yo, whistle.

-[ Whistles ] -Hey, everybody, thank you all for being here.

We've been over four years all together.

Been five over here, but there's a beginning of everything.

And look at what already started.

Look what it's going to keep going to.

Thank you all for everything, for real.

We love you all.

Salud.

-Salud!

[ Cheers and applause, whistling ] -Let's roll some dice, baby.

-Wait.

Let me hit that 4-5-6 right now.

Let me hit that 4-5-6.

-Even though we've been through a lot of highs and lows, we feel like we're just beginning to scratch the surface.

-All those things just tie back together of why we are the Taco Mafia, why we have all come so close, because, you know, all in our own way, have our story to tell, but we have the plus of having us as a family to support each other.

-Cmo has estado?

-Bien.

-Bien?

Te voy a pedir uno regular.

Un... [ Speaking indistinctly ] -So with all being said, we haven't mentioned this other gentleman named Jerry from... which is the fourth of the Taco Mafia members.

He is as much as important of what we've -- things that we've all been doing.

But that's a story for another time.